UC-NRLF 


053 


ALEXANDER  GOLDSTEIN 


SPRUNG  FROM  THE  WEST 

The  strength  of  virgin  forests  braced  his  mind, 
The  hush  of  spacious  prairies  filled  his  soul. 
Up  from  the  log  cabin  to  the  capitol, 
One  fire  was  on  his  spirit,  one  resolve — 
To  send  the  keen  axe  to  the  root  of  wrong, 
Clearing  a  free  way  for  the  feet  of  God. 
And  ever  more  he  burned  to  do  his  deed 
With  the  fine  stroke  and  gesture  of  a«  king; 
He  built  the  rail-piles  as  he  built  the  State, 
Pouring   his   splendid    strength   through   every   blow, 
The   conscience  of  him  testing  every  stroke 
To  make  his  deed  the  measure  of  a  man. 

EDWIN  MARKHAM. 


Copyrighted  1921  by 
Julia  Mygatt  Powell 


Flashlights 


Abraham  Lincoln 


By 


Julia  Mygatt  Powell 


THE  ANGELUS  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
613  South  Grand  Avenue 
Los  Angeles,  California 


Flashlights  of  Abraham  Lincoln 


day  in  the  year  1855,  there  stood  at  the 
entrance  to  the  Burnett  House  in  Cincinnati, 
that  old  hostelry  which  was  lately  burned  (1920), 
a  long,  lean,  gaunt,  sad-eyed  man  of  about  forty-five. 

His  clothes  were  ill  fitting  and  he  wore  heavy 
boots. 

He  was  in  that  city  as  one  of  the  counsel  for  the 
defendants  in  a  case  of  patent  infringements  upon 
reaping  machines. 

As  this  rather  inelegant  looking  man,  with  all 
his  native  picturesqueness  stood  there,  other  counsel 
also  employed  in  the  defense  came  near  ;  they  looked 
the  Hoosier  over,  passed  him  by  without  speaking, 
as  unworthy  of  notice,  and  walked  into  the  hotel. 
It  would  never  do  to  have  a  man  like  that  associ 
ated  with  them  on  this  important  case. 

What  man  was  this,  who,  unresentful  of  his  treat 
ment,  stayed  through  the  trial  of  this  case,  and  si 
lently  watched  its  progress?  It  was  said  afterward 
that  the  judge  was  as  much  influenced  by  his  un 
spoken,  but  expressive  sympathy  and  the  play  of  his 
features,  while  he  paced  back  and  forth  during  the 
'  progress  of  the  case,  as  by  the  argument  of  the 
other  counsel,  who  ignored  him. 

And  who  was  this  man?  It  was  the  same  man 
who  the  following  year,  standing  on  the  edge  of  the 
platform  at  Bloomington,  111.,  held  his  audience 
spell-bound,  as,  leaning  forward  on  his  toes,  hands 
on  his  hips,  his  eyes  flashing,  his  whole  face  illum 
ined  with  the  divine  fire  of  truth,  proclaimed  the 
fact  that  SLAVERY  WAS  WRONG,  and  to  his 
audience,  pressingforward,  Dale  and  breathless,  to 
catch  his  every  v^^tS^I  4;O^  l^e  a  g^ant  m~ 


spired  as  he  shouted,  "WE  WON'T  GO  OUT  OF 
; THE   UNION  AND   YOU   SHAN'T!"     And 

•  then,<  as  though  to  pour  oil  upon  the  troubled  waters, 
he  suggested  ballots  instead  of  bullets. 

"At  that  moment,"  said  Judge  Scott,  one  of  his 
hearers,  "he  was  the  handsomest  man  I  ever  saw." 

And  still  five  years  later,  in  1860,  when  the 
committee  from  the  great  Chicago  Convention, 
among  whom  were  William  M.  Evarts  and  Carl 
Schurz,  called  at  his  unpretentious  home  in  Spring 
field,  111.,  to  notify  him  of  his  nomination  to  the 
Presidency  of  the  United  States,  they  eyed  their 
candidate  with  many  misgivings — "his  great  height, 
his  huge  hands  and  feet,  his  lankness,  his  shoulders 
drooping  as  though  he  were  irresolute.  His  smooth- 
shaven  face  seemed  like  bronze;  cheeks  sunken, 
cheek  bones  high,  nose  large,  the  underlip  protrud 
ing  a  little,  eyes  cast  down. 

But  when  he  lifted  his  head  to  reply,  the  men  were 
thrilled  by  the  change.  He  became  erect,  the  eyes 
beamed  with  fire  and  intelligence.  Strong,  dignified, 
he  seemed  transformed. 

'Why,  sir,  they  told  me  he  was  a  rough  diamond/ 
said  one.  'Nothing  could  have  been  in  better  taste 
than  his  speech.' 

'We  might  have  done  a  more  daring  thing,  but 
we  could  not  have  done  a  better  thing,'  they  said 
afterward." 

ET  us  throw  a  flashlight  backward  over  this 

man's  pathway. 

We  see  him  twenty-nine  years  before  this,  enter 
ing  New  Salem,  111.,  just  twenty-one,  and  penniless, 
begging  for  work,  which  he  readily  found.  He  had 
not  even  good  clothes,  but  he  had  great  strength  and 
he  was  a  good  fellow.  He  was  six  feet,  four  inches 
tall.  He  could  outrun  any  young  man  in  the  coun 
try  'round,  and  lift  as  much  as  three  ordinary  men. 


Then  his  wit,  his  stories,  his  good  and  kindly  nature, 
which  had  always  won  him  friends,  made  friends 
at  once  for  him  now.  This  was  in  1831.  The  next 
year,  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  State  Legislature. 
He  was  defeated,  but  won  227  out  of  300  votes  in 
his  own  district.  In  two  years  he  was  again  a 
candidate,  and  this  time,  elected. 

The  people  looked  upon  him  as  a  prodigy.  Why? 
Was  it  his  strength,  his  great  height,  his  wit,  his 
stories?  These  all  helped,  but  there  was  something 
back  of  all  these.  There  was  the  power  of  CHAR 
ACTER  and  of  KNOWLEDGE.  And  whence 
came  at  this  early  age  this  power?  During  these 
twenty-one  years,  what  had  he  read — what  had  he 
learned  ? 

Many  a  college  bred  man  might  well  look  with 
envy  upon  this  ragged  youth  as  he  walked  into  New 
Salem  to  make  his  own  way. 

The  books  he  had  conned  were  The  Life  of 
Washington,  Aesop's  Fables,  Pilgrim's  Progress,  the 
lives  of  Benjamin  Franklin  and  Henry  Clay,  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  which  he  knew  by  heart.  And 
last,  but  by  no  means  least,  the  Bible. 

J.  G.  Holland  has  well  said,  "ABRAHAM  LIN 
COLN'S  POVERTY  OF  BOOKS  WAS  THE 
WEALTH  OF  HIS  LIFE. 

The  few  he  had,  did  much  to  perfect  the  teach 
ing  which  his  mother  had  begun,  and  to  form  a 
character,  which  for  quaint  simplicity,  earnestness, 
truthfulness  and  purity  has  never  been  surpassed 
among  the  historic  personages  of  the  world. 

Lincoln's  lack  of  books  threw  him  upon  his  own 
resources/' 

"By  books  may  Learning  sometimes  befall, 
But  Wisdom  never  by  books  at  all." 

A  testimonial  to  this  early  influence  was  given  by 
Lincoln  himself,  when  in  a  speech  at  Trenton,  N.  J., 


on  his  way  to  assume  his  duties  as  President,  he 
said,  "Away  back  in  my  childhood,  I  got  hold  of  a 
small  book  called  Weem's  Life  of  Washington.  I 
remember  all  the  accounts  there  given  of  the  battle 
fields  and  struggles  for  the  liberties  of  this  country, 
and  none  fixed  themselves  upon  my  imagination  so 
deeply  as  the  struggle  here  at  Trenton.  The  cross 
ing  of  the  river,  the  contest  with  the  Hessians,  the 
great  hardships  endured  at  that  time,  all  fixed  them 
selves  in  my  memory  more  than  any  Revolutionary 
event.  I  recall  thinking  then,  boy  though  I  was, 
that  there  must  have  been  something  more  than  com 
mon  that  these  men  struggled  for.  I  am  exceed 
ingly  anxious  that  that  thing  which  they  struggled 
for,  that  something  even  more  than  National  inde 
pendence,  that  something  that  held  out  a  great 
promise  to  all  the  people  of  the  world  for  all  time 
to  come;  I  am  exceedingly  anxious  that  this  Union, 
the  Constitution  and  the  liberties  of  the  people,  shall 
be  perpetuated  in  accordance  with  the  original  idea 
for  which  that  struggle  was  made!' 

TURN  for  a  moment  to  this  central  thought,  this 
principle,  which  is  the  life  and  strength  of  our 
nation.  This  was  the  great  "motif"  of  Abraham 
Lincoln's  life.  It  is  what  he  lived  for;  worked  for, 
died  for.  "A  chain  is  as  strong  as  its  weakest  link," 
and  Abraham  Lincoln  cemented  this  "weakest  link," 
and  made  a  chain  so  strong  that  the  "Gates  of  Hell 
shall  not  prevail  against  it." 

Let  us  review  in  a  very  simple  and  superficial 
way,  this  chain  of  government. 

So  imbued,  at  the  start,  was  each  link  with  its 
own  importance,  that  it  took  years,  yes,  one  hun 
dred,  to  strengthen  the  hold  each  link  had  upon  the 
other,  and  make  a  strong,  enduring  whole. 

The  year  1789,  when  Washington  became  Presi 
dent,  was  the  year  that  the  terrible  French  Revolu- 


tion  broke  loose.  The  French  thought  we  ought  to 
help  them,  but  the  French  Revolution  was  too  awful, 
and  we  were  too  weak.  We  were  not  yet  standing 
firmly  on  our  own  feet,  and  we  were  still  having 
trouble  with  England  over  boundary  lines  and  over 
our  rights  on  the  sea.  There  were  two  parties — 
those  supporting  the  Constitution,  called  Federalists, 
and  those  opposed  to  it,  called  Anti-Federalists. 
The  Federalists,  under  Alexander  Hamilton,  were 
for  a  strong  Federal  Government.  The  Anti-Fed 
eralists,  led  by  Jefferson,  wanted  the  States  to  have 
the  strongest  power.  This  party  was  called  at  first 
Republicans,  then  Democrats,  after  the  French 
Democrats  and  because  they  favored  helping  the 
French  Revolution.  Then  they  were  known  as 
Democratic  Republicans.  Finally,  in  Andrew  Jack 
son's  administration,  they  were  called  Democrats, 
and  the  name  has  remained  with  them  until  now, 
although  one  of  the  questions  for  which  they  stood 
— States  Rights — has  been  forever  settled. 

But  at  this  early  time,  while  we  had  a  very  weak 
central  government,  we  were  having  trouble  with 
France  as  well  as  England.  The  French  seized  a 
thousand  of  our  vessels.  The  French  demanded  of 
us  a  large  sum  of  money. 

Then  went  up  the  rallying  cry,  "Millions  for  de 
fence,  but  not  one  cent  for  tribute!" 

These  troubles  strengthened  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment.  Then  came  the  Allen  and  Sedition  laws, 
which  gave  the  President  power  to  send  out  of  the 
country  any  foreigner  he  thought  dangerous  to  its 
welfare.  This  aroused  the  Anti-Federalists,  and 
Kentucky  even  declared  the  right  of  any  State  to 
nullify  or  put  at  defiance  any  law  which,  in  its 
judgment,  was  unconstitutional. 

Then,  as  ever,  there  was  a  man  for  the  occasion. 
John  Marshall,  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States, 
exerted  the  greatest  influence  toward  making  the 


General  Government  superior  to  the  States.  Sen 
ator  Beverage  truly  said  of  him,  "He  found  the  con 
stitution  paper,  and  made  it  a  power;  he  found  it  a 
skeleton  and  clothed  it  with  flesh  and  blood" 

Shortly  after  this,  in  1803,  while  Jefferson  was 
President,  we  bought  from  France  that  great  and 
at  the  time  little  known  territory,  called  Louisiana. 
Napoleon  was  in  dire  need  of  money,  and  sold  it  to 
us  for  $15,000,000.  By  doing  this,  Jefferson,  who 
believed  in  States  Rights,  was  taking  the  greatest 
liberty  with  the  Constitution,  and  went  exactly 
opposite  to  the  belief  of  his  own  party.  It  was 
nevertheless  the  greatest  act  of  his  life,  and  of  untold 
benefit  to  the  United  States. 

Then  in  1804-1806,  came  the  Lewis  and  Clarke 
expeditions,  exploring  the  country  to  the  Pacific 
Coast.  In  1807,  Robert  Fulton  sailed  his  steam 
boat  up  the  Hudson  River,  and  things  began  to  move 
faster.  In  1812  came  the  second  war  of  Independ 
ence.  At  this  time,  James  Madison,  a  strong  Feder 
alist,  was  in  the  Presidential  chair. 


TN  the  midst  of  these  doings,  in  the  year  1809,  on 
•*•  February  12th,  in  a  log  cabin  in  Kentucky,  the 
hero  of  our  sketch  came  into  this  world.  It  was  the 
year  in  which  Gladstone  was  born,  and  which  gave 
Darwin  and  Tennyson  to  the  world. 

When  this  second  war  for  independence  started, 
Lincoln  was  three  years  old,  and  when  it  closed  he 
was  six.  And  thus  he  grew  'midst  these  stirring 
events. 

The  United  States  had  as  much  reason  to  go  to 
war  with  France  at  this  time  as  with  England,  but 
we  could  not  declare  war  against  both.  Then  there 
was  Canada  at  the  north  of  us,  and  we  might  be 
able  to  lay  hold  of  that !  So  it  was  war  ivith  Eng 
land  we  had. 

10 


The  New  England  Federalists  were  opposed  to 
this  war  as  it  progressed.  This  party  comprised  the 
wealthy  commercial  men,  and  it  tied  up  their  trade. 
New  England  at  first  sent  more  than  her  quota  of 
men  and  money,  but  as  business  distress  grew  and 
the  management  of  the  war  was  bad,  their  opposi 
tion  became  so  bitter,  that  they — even  they — who 
stood  strong  for  a  central  government — were  the 
very  ones  to  meet  in  private  conclave,  at  Hartford, 
Conn.,  and  recommend  that  taxes  collected  for  the 
National  Government,  be  reserved  for  their  own  de 
fense. 

The  cry  of  "Treason!"  rang  out  from  the  nation, 
and  the  Federalist  party  was  killed. 

This  war  ended  the  day  before  Christmas,  1814, 
and  placed  our  country  in  a  position  where  it  com 
manded  the  respect  of  all  Europe.  But  it  did  more. 
During  and  after  this  war,  manufactories  sprang 
up  throughout  the  New  England  and  Middle  States, 
thereby  rendering  us,  to  a  great  extent,  independent 
of  foreign  markets.  This  necessitated  a  strong  pro 
tective  tariff. 

These  facts  are  briefly  recalled  to  show  how  and 
why  the  Union  was  being  gradually  cemented  into 
one  strong  governing  power,  and  small  state  inter 
ests  were  being  merged  into  the  greatest  good  for  the 
greatest  number.  Yet  the  idea  of  States  rights  as 
being  stronger  than  Federal  union  was  by  no  means 
dead. 

The  north  was  now  a  great  manufacturing  center, 
while  the  south  exported  her  raw  materials,  and 
wished  to  receive  in  return  the  manufactured  articles 
at  lowest  cost.  The  high  tariff  which  was  a  protec 
tion  to  the  north,  therefore,  worked,  as  it  seemed,  a 
detriment  to  the  south.  Thus  we  see  that  aside  from 
the  slavery  question,  there  were  other  interests  which 
held  the  south  to  the  belief  in  "States  Rights."  The 
north  reasoned  that  the  whole  country  would  be 

11 


benefitted  by  a  high  protective  tariff.  It  would  be 
a  revenue  for  the  government.  It  would  benefit 
the  worker  by  raising  wages.  It  would  give  the 
producer  a  home  market,  and  it  would  make  the 
country  independent  of  foreign  countries. 

Daniel  Webster  at  this  time  came  out  strongly 
for  the  Federal  Government,  with  these  ringing 
words :  "Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  forever ,  one 
and  Inseparable!' 

Finally,  when  Andrew  Jackson  was  elected 
(1829),  the  South  Carolina  people,  knowing  that  he 
was  opposed  to  a  high  protective  tariff,  invited  him 
to  a  banquet,  and  asked  him  to  propose  his  own 
toast.  To  their  chagrin,  he  proposed: 

"Our  Federal  Union!    It  must  be  preserved!" 

He  afterward  reiterated  this  in  a  way  to  make 
South  Carolina  tremble,  when  he  shouted,  "Our 
Federal  Union  must  and  shall  be  preserved!"  and 
sent  General  Scott  to  collect  the  tariff  in  South 
Carolina  ports. 


ILJUT  before  this,  there  had  grown  to  be  a  natural 
dividing  line  between  freedom  and  slavery.  The 
Ohio  River  was  that  line,  and  running  eastward  it 
was  called  the  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line.  To  pass 
north  of  that  line  meant  freedom  to  the  slave,  if 
he  could  keep  from  being  caught. 

In  1820,  Missouri,  a  part  of  the  Louisiana  Pur 
chase,  applied  for  admission  as  a  slave  state.  Mis 
souri  lay  partly  north  and  partly  south  of  this  divid 
ing  line.  The  North  contended  that  as  the  Federal 
Government  had  owned  Missouri  when  a  territory, 
it  alone  had  the  right  to  say  whether  it  should  come 
in  free  or  slave.  The  South  argued  that  each  state 
had  the  right  to  decide  that  for  itself. 

Then  Henry  Clay,  uThe  Great  Peace-Maker," 
put  through  the  Missouri  Compromise,  which  ad- 

12 


mitted  it  as  a  slave  state,  but  declared  all  other  ter 
ritory  that  remained,  which  was  north  of  the  south 
ern  boundary  of  Missouri,  should  forever  be  free. 
This  the  South  accepted.  Maine  at  this  time  was 
admitted  as  a  free  state,  making  twelve  slave  and 
twelve  free  states,  and  it  was  thought  the  slavery 
question  was  finally  settled. 

About  this  time,  Abraham  Lincoln  came  into  his 
majority.  He  was  then  and  always,  a  Henrv  Clay 
man.  Clay  was  interested  in  the  colonization  of 
the  free  negroes  and  of  gradual  emancipation,  and 
this  appealed  to  Lincoln.  He  had  in  several  trips 
to  New  Orleans,  carrying  produce  and  managing 
a  flat-boat  down  the  Mississippi  River,  from  the 
time  he  was  seventeen  until  he  was  twenty-two,  seen 
the  horrors  of  slavery,  as  it  was  exhibited  in  the 
slave  market  there,  and  it  aroused  his  whole  soul. 
From  that  time,  he  had  a  sort  of  mystic  feeling  that 
he  should  plav  some  important  pirt  in  the  deliver 
ance  of  the  slaves. 

Lincoln  said  his  education  was  defective,  but  here 
and  now  he  was  learning  the  most  valuable  lessons 
of  his  life.  How  true  it  is  that  "Your  own  will 
come  to  you."  Was  it  just  a  "happen  so"  that  in 
his  young  boyhood  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  fell  into  his  hands  and  that  he  learned  it  by 
heart?  Between  his  first  attempt  and  defeat  for 
the  legislature,  and  his  second  attempt  and  success, 
he  was  a  store-keeper  and  post-master. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  he  earned  the  title  of 
Honest  Abe.  Twice  he  walked  five  miles  and  back, 
after  hours,  to  correct  an  error;  once  to  return  three 
cents,  and  once  to  make  good  a  pound  of  tea. 

Was  it  just  "mere  luck"  that  at  this  particular 
period  in  his  life,  he  bought  an  old  barrel  of  an 
overladen  emigrant,  traveling  westward,  who  wanted 
to  lighten  his  load,  and  that  one  day,  turning  the 
barrel  out,  he  found  in  it  Blackstone's  Commen- 
13 


taries?  He  said,  "I  never  was  so  absorbed  in  any 
thing  in  my  life." 

He  lay  upon  the  counter  of  his  store,  when  cus 
tomers  were  far  between,  oblivious  of  the  world 
about  him,  reading  these  books,  while  his  partner, 
a  man  by  the  name  of  Berry,  was  drinking  himself 
into  perdition  and  the  store  into  bankruptcy. 

Lincoln  learned  now,  along  with  the  law  which 
so  strongly  appealed  to  him,  and  the  grammar  by 
which  he  corrected  his  speech,  the  great  object  les 
son  of  the  brutalizing  power  of  strong  drink,  and 
he  took  his  stand  then,  singly  and  alone,  against  the 
worse  than  useless,  the  positively  harmful  stuff  that 
he  saw  dragging  these  early  settlers  into  blighted 
lives.  Afterward,  in  1860,  when  the  delegation 
from  Chicago  came  to  notify  him  of  his  nomination 
to  the  Presidency,  his  friends  told  him  he  should 
have  some  wine  and  treat  them  right.  His  replv 
was:  "I  have  never  had  it  in  my  house,  and  I  shall 
not  change  my  habit,"  and  he  returned  the  flasks  of 
wine  they  sent  to  him. 

Lincoln,  like  Washington,  whom  he  adored,  never 
swerved  from  his  purpose,  once  it  was  fixed. 

While  he  was  still  young,  he  always  did  things 
differently  from  other  boys,  and  better — more  thor 
oughly — and  he  had  a  wonderful  memory.  His 
mother  taught  him  and  his  sister  all  the  Bible 
stories,  and  his  story  telling  habit  dates  from  these 
early  days.  The  people  loved  Lincoln  always  from 
the  time  he  was  a  boy.  In  Gentryville,  from  which 
place  his  father's  family  moved  just  when  he  was 
twenty-one,  his  comrades  planted  a  cedar  tree  in  his 
memory.  This  tree  is  still  standing,  as  "the  first 
monument  to  him  whose  monuments  will  never 
cease  to  be  erected." 

Once  in  Gentryville,  he  picked  up  a  drunken  man 
who  was  in  danger  of  freezing,  and  carried  him  to 
warmth  and  safety. 

14 


Lincoln's  ready  wit  always  made  him  equal  to 
any  emergency.  The  Black  Hawk  war  broke  out 
the  year  he  was  the  first  time  a  candidate  for  the 
legislature.  He  enlisted  and  was  elected  captain  of 
a  company  of  volunteers.  He  was  marching  across 
a  field  with  a  front  of  over  twenty  men,  when  he 
had  to  pass  through  a  gateway  to  the  next  enclo 
sure.  He  said,  "I  could  not,  for  the  life  of  me,  think 
of  the  proper  word  to  get  my  company  endwise,  so 
I  shouted,  'This  company  is  dismissed  for  two  min 
utes,  and  it  will  fall  in  again  on  the  other  side  of 
the  gate.'  " 

He  made  a  great  many  speeches  at  this  time,  and 
his  knowledge  of  affairs,  his  logic,  his  interest,  was 
true  and  straight. 

On  one  occasion  a  fight  started  between  some 
opposing  parties  and  some  of  his  friends.  He  saw 
that  his  friends  were  being  worsted,  and  he  jumped 
down  from  the  platform,  promptly  whipped  the 
other  men,  then  came  back  and  finished  his  speech. 

He  learned  surveying  at  this  time,  and  was  so 
correct  in  his  surveys  that  he  was  in  constant  demand 
at  three  dollars  per  day,  and  became,  like  Wash 
ington,  the  authorized  (deputy)  county  surveyor.  In 
his  journeyings  as  surveyor,  there  was  not  a  home 
where  he  was  not  more  than  welcome.  His  honest, 
kindly,  helpful  nature  and  his  ready  wit  and  stories 
appealed  to  all. 


LIFE  was  before  him.    His  mind  was  well  trained 
— trained  by  himself  and  necessity,  and  assimi 
lated  knowledge  easily. 

He   was   ambitious,   and — in   love.      Engaged   to 

Ann  Rutledge,  a  beautiful  girl.     Her  sad  death  in 

August,  1835,  threw  Lincoln  into  the  deepest  gloom. 

She  had  malarial  fever,  which  developed  into  hasty 

consumption.     Lincoln   also  at  this  time,   and   for 

15 


months,  was  affected  with  the  same  fever.  It  was 
quite  prevalent,  and  many  people  died  from  it.  This 
condition  of  his  own  health,  no  doubt,  gave  an 
added  gloom  to  his  sorrow  over  the  death  of  his 
sweetheart,  so  that  his  friends  feared  his  reason 
would  forsake  him. 

A  friend,  Bowling  Green,  by  name,  took  him  into 
his  home  and  there  he  was  nursed  back  to  health. 
But  to  the  grave  of  Ann  Rutledge  he  often  went, 
and  said  that  his  heart  was  buried  there.  With  his 
iron  grip,  however,  he  outwardly  mastered  himself. 

This  new  sorrow  brought  in  the  end  that  poise 
and  power,  which  only  deep  grief  can  bring.  Lin 
coln's  life  had  been  full  of  sadness,  for  his  affections 
were  deep.  The  loss  of  his  mother  he  felt  very 
keenly,  and  then  his  sister  a  few  years  later  was 
taken. 

He  seems  to  have  been  fond  of  his  step-mother, 
Sarah  Bush  Johnston  Lincoln.  She  was  sensible, 
kind  and  much  interested  in  her  step-son,  tho  she 
brought  three  children  of  her  own  into  the  Lincoln 
household. 

But  Lincoln,  while  he  was  a  part  of,  was  always 
apart  from  other  people.  He  felt  more  keenly.  He 
was  deeper,  bigger,  broader,  more  in  touch  with  the 
unseen,  more  alive  and  in  sympathy  with  unseen 
influences.  He  could  not  explain  this.  He  could 
not  say  "I  am  different,"  but  he  felt  it. 

"We  are  mortals  clad  in  veils 
Man  by  man  was  never  seen 
All  our  deep  communings  fail 
To  remove  the  shadowy  screen." 


GREATNESS  does  not  come  by  chance — there's 
a  reason.    There  is  a  mental  and  spiritual  law 
as  well  as  a  physical.   We  do  not  understand  it,  but 
it  exists  just  the  same. 

16 


Lincoln  never  knew  exactly  who  he  was,  and  he 
had  various  surmises,  which  are  supposed  to  have 
tinged  his  life  with  a  melancholy  strain. 

But  it  has  been  ascertained  definitely  that  he 
came  of  honorable  lineage,  on  both  sides  of  his 
parentage.  There  is  not  time  in  this  short  sketch 
to  go  into  it,  but  William  E.  Barton,  after  great 
painstaking  research,  has  written  a  400-page  volume 
upon  the  subject,  and  contemporary  writers  have 
also  traced  his  ancestry  straight  and  legitimately 
back  to  the  early  days  of  1635  and  back  of  that  to 
England,  so  that  were  Lincoln  living  today  he 
might  be  a  Son  of  the  Revolution  and  his  sister  a 
Colonial  Dame.  But  of  what  use  are  any  of  these 
societies,  if  not  to  work  and  fight  for  the  great 
principles  which  glorify  and  uplift  the  honor,  integ 
rity,  dignity  and  power  of  the  nation — just  as  Lin 
coln  did* 

Lincoln  was  big,  broad,  bountiful  in  his  mind. 
It  was  never  of  himself  that  he  thought.  Small 
politics  never  interested  him,  but  when  a  great  prin 
ciple  was  at  stake,  when  a  great  wrong  was,  or  about 
to  be,  perpetrated  upon  his  fellow  beings,  then  it 
was  that  his  titanic  powers  were  roused,  and  the 
force  of  his  eloquence  was  supreme. 

Lincoln  always  acknowledged  his  lack  of  classical 
training.  His  studies  in  the  school  room  were  less 
than  a  year.  Once  when  a  party  of  distinguished 
ministers  visited  him  in  Washington,  one  turned  to 
the  other  and  repeated  something  in  Latin.  Lincoln 
leaned  forward  in  his  chair  and  said,  "All  of  which, 
I  presume  you  know,  I  do  not  understand." 

A  few  days  after  this,  however,  in  riding  out  to 
his  summer  home,  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  he 
described  and  discoursed  upon  all  the  varied  trees 
by  the  way,  showing,  as  he  said,  the  knowledge  he 
had  gained  as  a  frontiersman. 

17 


And  now  in  1836  he  is  admitted  to  the  practice 
of  law.  While  in  the  Illinois  legislature  for  four 
years,  he  was  largely  instrumental  in  having  the 
capitol  of  the  state  removed  to  Springfield,  and  in 
Springfield  he  now  opens  his  law  office.  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  whom  Lincoln  met  in  the  legislature,  and 
had  met  before  that  in  New  Salem,  is  also  a  resi 
dent  of  Springfield. 

It  is  in  this  city  that  he  is  to  live  for  the  next 
twenty-five  years,  here  he  is  to  show  his  power  of 
logic  and  reason,  his  knowledge  of  men  and  affairs. 
Mr.  Herndon,  who  was  his  junior  partner,  says  of 
him: 

"The  truth  about  the  whole  matter  is  that  Lin 
coln  read  less  and  thought  more  than  any  man  in 
his  sphere  in  America.  When  young  he  read  the 
Bible,  and  when  of  age,  he  read  Shakespeare.  The 
latter  book  was  scarcely  ever  out  of  his  mind.  He 
possessed  originality  and  power  of  thought  in  an 
eminent  degree.  He  was  cautious,  cool,  patient  and 
enduring.  He  must  know  his  subject  inside  and  out 
side,  upside  and  downside. 

He  was  a  merciless  analyzer  of  facts,  things  and 
principles.  All  opponents  dreaded  him,  and  woe  be 
to  the  man  who  hugged  to  himself  a  secret  error  if 
Mr.  Lincoln  got  on  the  chase  of  it. 

His  pursuit  of  truth  was  indefatigable,  terrible. 
It  seemed  at  times  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  fresh  from 
the  hand  of  the  Creator.  He  was  an  odd  and  orig 
inal  man.  He  lived  by  himself  and  out  of  himself. 
He  was  a  very  sensitive  man,  unobstrusive  and 
gentlemanly.  He  had  no  avarice  in  his  nature,  nor 
any  other  vice.  It  puzzled  him  at  Washington  to 
know  and  to  get  at  the  root  of  this  dread  desire, 
this  contagious  disease  of  national  robbery  in  the 
Nation's  death  struggle. 

18 


This  man,  this  long,  bony,  wiry,  sad-eyed  man, 
floated  into  our  country  in  1831,  in  a  frail  canoe, 
down  the  north  fork  of  the  Sangamon  River,  friend 
less,  penniless,  powerless  and  alone — begging  tor 
work.  Ragged,  struggling  for  the  common  necessi 
ties  of  life. 

This  man,  this  peculiar  man,  left  us  in  1861,  as 
President  of  the  United  States,  backed  by  friends, 
power,  fame  and  all  human  force" 


T  N  1837,  the  year  after  Lincoln  moved  himself 
and  his  small  belongings  to  Springfield,  and  had 
begun  the  practice  of  law  in  that  city,  he  went  one 
day  with  some  lawyers  and  doctors  to  a  camp  meet 
ing  at  Salem,  his  old  "camping-ground." 

He  cracked  jokes  and  was  the  life  of  the  crowd. 
When  they  reached  the  camp  meeting,  Peter  Akers, 
a  famous  preacher,  was  holding  forth.  His  sermon 
was  three  hours  long,  and  he  said  a  great  war  would 
put  an  end  to  slavery  in  the  sixties.  The  crowd 
surged  around  the  preacher,  and  he  cried  out,  "Who 
can  tell  but  that  the  man  who  shall  lead  us  thru 
this  strife  may  be  standing  here?"  A  solemn  still 
ness  fell  over  the  assembly. 

As  they  were  returning  to  Springfield,  Lincoln 
remained  silent  a  long  time.  At  last,  one  asked  him 
what  he  thought  of  the  sermon.  His  answer  was: 

"Peter  Akers  has  convinced  me  that  American 
slavery  will  go  down  in  the  crash  of  civil  war;  and, 
gentlemen,  you  may  be  surprised,  but  when  the 
preacher  was  describing  the  civil  war,  I  distinctly 
saw  myself,  as  in  second  sight,  bearing  an  important 
part  in  that  strife." 

The  next  day,  Mr.  Lincoln  came  very  late  to 
the  office,  looking  pale  and  haggard.  Mr.  Herndon 
exclaimed,  "Why,  Lincoln,  what's  the  matter?" 


Lincoln  replied,  "I  am  utterly  unable  to  shake 
myself  free  from  the  conviction  that  I  shall  be  in 
volved  in  that  war." 


T    INCOLN'S  life  was  undoubtedly  inspired  from 
early  childhood,  and  was  a  life  of  growth  from 
inspiration  to  inspiration. 


\\T E  have  seen  how  the  death  of  Ann  Rutledge 
*  *  affected  him,  but  life  with  her  was  not  to  be. 
It  had  exerted  its  influence;  it  helped  to  give  him 
strength  and  power,  but  he  was  now  to  come  into 
the  aura  of  one  who  had  faith  in  him,  had  ambition 
for  him,  who  saw  his  greatness,  and  who  always 
helped  and  urged  him  toward  the  goal  which  she 
clearly  saw  was  his. 

I  say  this,  because  in  my  opinion  (after  careful 
investigation)  Mary  Todd,  the  wife  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  has  been  much  maligned. 

She  was  high-strung,  temperamental,  of  good 
family,  a  brilliant  conversationalist,  well  educated 
and  a  fine  French  scholar.  Her  relatives  did  not 
favor  her  marriage  with  Lincoln,  who  tho  brilliant, 
was  thought  to  be  of  too  obscure  and  ordinary  pedi 
gree  for  their  fastidious  tastes.  Mary  Todd,  how 
ever,  preferred  Lincoln  to  any  of  her  suitors,  and 
she  had  many.  They  became  engaged,  but  Lincoln 
tho  polite  and  gentlemanly  was  lacking  in  the  nice 
little  attentions  which  women  like,  and  was  often 
delinquent  in  these  respects.  The  engagement  was 
finally  broken  and  so  remained  for  nearly  a  year. 

He  had  said  not  long  before  this  that  his  ''heart 
was  in  the  grave  with  Ann  Rutledge,"  but  the  old 
adage  is  pretty  true  that, 

"Men  have  died  and  worms  have  eaten  them;  but 
not  for  love." 

20 


Tho  Lincoln  was  deeply  in  love  with  this  beauti 
ful  girl,  he  never  would  have  become  the  man  he 
did,  had  he  married  her. 

Mary  Todd  was  in  love  with  Lincoln.  She  dis 
cerned  through  the  unprepossessing  setting,  the  fire 
of  the  great  soul  within.  An  old  lady  in  Spring 
field  said: 

"We  girls  all  liked  Lincoln,  tho  he  was  not  a 
ladies'  man.  The  only  thing  we  had  against  him 
was  that  he  attracted  all  the  men  away  by  them 
selves  at  our  parties." 

The  engagement  with  Miss  Todd  was  renewed  in 
about  a  year,  and  on  November  4th,  1842,  they  were 
very  quietly  married.  In  two  years  after  this  he 
purchased  a  very  unpretentious  home,  in  which  he 
lived  until  he  left  it  for  the  White  House  in  1861. 

His  four  boys  were  born  here,  and  here  they  lived 
among  their  friends  and  the  gossips  for  seventeen 
years.  Mrs.  Lincoln  undoubtedly  had  some  temper, 
but  she  was  kind  and  always  interested  in  her  hus 
band's  welfare.  She  was  quick  to  see  what  was  for 
his  advantage  and  to  throw  her  influence  that  way. 
He  did  some  things  which  shocked  her  sense  of  con 
ventionality  and  roused  her  ire. 

One  day  the  door  bell  rang,  and  Mr.  Lincoln 
in  his  friendly  homespun  way  (it  is  said,  in  his 
shirt-sleeves)  opened  the  door  and  ushered  in  two 
stylish  Springfield  dames. 

"Come  right  in,"  he  said,  "and  I'll  go  and  run 
the  women-folks  in." 

Mr.  Lincoln  himself  "ran  out"  very  shortly  after 
this,  and  was  not  seen  around  the  premises  again 
for  several  hours. 

They  had  at  this  time  for  several  years  a  Swedish 
maid  for  household  purposes.  Waiting  upon  the 
door  was  one  of  them. 

21 


Many  American  dames  who  never  even  thought 
of  aspiring  to  be  "First  Lady  of  the  Land,"  would 
not  have  been  meek  under  such  provocation. 

A  lady  said  to  Mrs.  Lincoln  one  day,  "If  I  had 
a  husband  with  the  brains  yours  has,  I  wouldn't 
mind  if  he  smashed  every  conventionality." 

"I  suppose  I  am  foolish,"  replied  Mrs.  Lincoln, 
well  pleased  with  the  compliment. 

Stephen  Fiske  in  "When  Lincoln  was  First  In 
augurated,"  says: 

"When  they  were  on  their  way  to  Washington  in 
1861,  upon  reaching  New  York  City,  as  the  train 
was  stopping  they  saw  the  immense  crowds  that  had 
gathered.  Then  Mrs.  Lincoln  opened  her  handbag 
and  said  "Abraham,  I  must  fix  you  up  a  little  for 
these  city  folks."  Mr.  Lincoln  lifted  her  gently  to 
the  seat  in  front  of  him.  She  parted  and  brushed 
his  hair  and  arranged  his  black  necktie.  "Do  I  look 
nice  now,  Mother?"  he  affectionately  asked. 

"Well,  you'll  do,  Abraham,"  she  replied.  So  he 
kissed  her  and  lifted  her  down  from  the  seat. 

And  it  was  this  motherly  care  that  Mrs.  Lin 
coln  always  had  over  him.  They  were  a  happy 
family,  on  the  whole,  possibly  with  an  occasional 
break,  living  in  their  quiet  home  in  Springfield,  and 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  devoted  to  his  boys,  who  were  full 
of  their  pranks.  They  never  annoyed  him,  but 
seemed  to  afford  him  endless  amusement. 


.  RANKIN  in  his  Personal  Recollections  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  says: 
"Mr.  Lincoln  was  ten  years  her  senior.  He  had 
passed  the  'susceptible  age'  when  marriages  are  con 
tracted  on  impulse.  I  saw  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lincoln  in 
many  situations — at  their  home,  leaving  home,  sepa 
rating  for  absence  on  business  or  pleasure,  when  call- 

22 


ing  at  the  law  office  during  busy  hours,  driving  out 
together,  at  parties,  attending  church,  in  both  pleas 
ant  and  trying  situations  with  their  children,  with 
their  friends,  their  political  foes,  and  later  with 
huzzahing  crowds,  and  in  none  of  these  situations 
did  I  ever  detect  in  Mrs.  Lincoln  aught  but  the  most 
wifely  and  matronly  propriety  and  respect  toward 
her  husband,  her  family  and  her  friends." 

There  were  moods  of  inner  solitude  into  which 
Lincoln  sometimes  lapsed.  They  were  characteristic 
of  him  long  before  she  met  him.  Her  sprightly  spirit 
and  keen  wit  lit  up  this  gloom.  She,  of  all  who  were 
near  him,  was  the  only  one  who  had  the  skill  and 
tact  to  shorten  their  duration. 

He  was  careless  and  indifferent  about  his  eating, 
and  she  in  her  anxiety  for  his  health  was  insistent 
that  he  should  eat  regularly  well  prepared  food. 
Once  in  the  White  House  he  was  in  consultation 
over  an  important  matter  when  the  butler  announced 
dinner.  He  paid  no  attention.  Then  little  "Tad" 
came  and  begged  and  pulled  his  father  to  "come  to 
dinner."  He  dismissed  the  little  fellow,  saying, 
"Yes,  yes,  directly."  But  in  a  few  minutes  Mrs. 
Lincoln  appeared  and  emphatically  informed  him  of 
the  repeated  calls  to  dinner,  and  that  they  were  wait 
ing  for  him. 

At  this  Mr.  Lincoln  laid  aside  the  documents, 
and  without  the  least  displeasure,  crossed  the  room, 
took  Mrs.  Lincoln  by  both  arms,  and  slowly  and 
gently  moved  toward  the  doorway,  until  she  was 
through  it,  then  closing  the  door  and  locking  it,  he 
quietly,  without  a  word,  went  on  with  the  business. 
Thus  he  showed  that  when  more  important  things 
than  himself  were  at  stake  he  was  master. 

Mrs.  Lincoln's  motive  behind  all  this  was  right. 
She  was  solicitous  for  her  husband's  welfare,  and  it 
was  this  care  of  hers  that,  no  doubt,  helped  greatly 

23 


to  keep  him  in  strength  and  health  during  his  most 
strenuous  years,  for  he  was  always  very  indifferent 
to  the  importance  of  regular  food,  as  well  as  regular 
hours  of  rest. 


A/1  R.  ALCOTT,  of  Elgin,  Illinois,  tells  of  seeing 
Mr.  Lincoln  coming  home  from  church  un 
usually  early  one  Sunday.  "Tad"  was  slung  across 
his  arm  like  a  pair  of  saddle  bags,  and  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  striding  with  long,  deliberate  steps  toward  his 
home. 

On  a  corner  he  met  a  group  of  friends.  "Gentle 
men,"  he  said,  "I  entered  this  colt,  but  he  kicked  so, 
I  had  to  withdraw  him." 

Mr.  Lincoln's  kindness  was  proverbial  in  Spring 
field.  One  day  he  saw  a  little  girl  standing  by  her 
gate  and  crying.  He  stopped  and  asked  her  what 
the  matter  was.  "Oh.  Mr.  Lincoln,"  she  said,  "I 
was  going  to  take  the  train  for  a  visit,  but  the  man 
doesn't  come  for  my  trunk,  and  I  shall  miss  it." 

"Is  that  all?"  said  Mr.  Lincoln.  "Well,  dry  your 
eyes  and  let  me  look  at  the  trunk."  He  followed 
the  little  girl  upstairs,  shouldered  the  not  overlarge 
trunk,  carried  it  to  the  depot,  and  saw  the  happy 
little  girl  and  her  trunk  safely  on  their  journey. 

Such  homely,  every-day  acts  of  kindness  endeared 
Mr.  Lincoln  to  Springfield  people,  and  no  one  could 
be  more  beloved  than  he  by  his  fellow  townsfolk. 

He  was  a  gentleman  at  heart.  A  gentleman  born, 
and  he  would  fain  have  forgotten  the  rough,  hard, 
rail  splitting,  ragged,  bare-foot,  uncouth  days  of  his 
childhood,  but,  if  he  individually  could  have  for 
gotten  them,  his  relatives  and  "friends"  took  care 
that  he  should  not. 

And  thus  passed  the  seventeen  following  years  at 
Springfield.  He  was  saddled  with  a  $1200  debt, 

24 


which  his  drunken  partner  in  Salem  had  left  for  him 
to  carry,  and  he  had  his  father's  indigent  family  to 
aid — these  matters,  combined  with  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Lincoln's  acquisitiveness  amounted  to  making  an 
honest  living,  and  that  a  frugal  one,  with  always  a 
fear  of  overcharging  his  clients,  brought  him  at  the 
end  of  these  seventeen  years  to  where  he  owned  just 
the  house  he  lived  in. 

He  never  drank  liquor,  nor  used  tobacco.  In  this 
way  he  put  the  laugh  over  on  Stephen  A.  Douglas 
once  in  their  debates. 

At  one  of  their  meetings,  Douglas  told  the  crowd 
that  when  he  first  knew  Lincoln  he  was  a  ''grocery- 
keeper,  and  sold  whiskey,  cigars,  etc." 

"Mr.  Lincoln,"  he  said,  "was  a  very  good  bar 
tender."  This  put  the  laugh  on  Lincoln.  But  Mr. 
Lincoln's  reply  came  soon. 

"What  Mr.  Douglas  has  said,  gentlemen,  is  true 
enough.  I  did  keep  a  grocery,  and  I  did  sell  cotton, 
candles,  cigars  and  sometimes  whiskey,  but  I  remem 
ber  in  those  days  Mr.  Douglas  was  one  of  my  best 
customers.  I  can  also  say  this :  that  I  have  since  left 
my  side  of  the  counter,  while  Mr.  Douglas  sticks 
to  his!" 

This  brought  such  a  storm  of  cheers  and  laughter 
that  Douglas  was  silenced. 

Lincoln  went  on  living,  cracking  his  jokes,  telling 
his  stories,  winning  his  cases,  making  friends  and  ex 
tending  his  reputation  throughout  Illinois. 


A   LAWYER  one  day  said  to  one  of  the  judges 
that  he  thought  Lincoln's  stories  were  a  waste 
of  time. 

"Lay  not  that  flattering  unction  to  your  soul," 
replied  the  judge.  "Lincoln  is  like  Tansey's  horse, 
he  breaks  to  win." 

25 


And  win  he  did.  In  1846  he  was  elected  to 
Congress. 

During  this  time  Judge  Hammond  and  Thomas 
H.  Nelson,  (the  latter  appointed  by  Lincoln,  when 
President,  minister  to  Chili)  were  going  from  Terre 
Haute  to  Indianapolis  by  stage  coach. 

"As  we  stepped  in,"  said  Nelson  later,  "we  saw 
that  the  entire  back  seat  was  occupied  by  a  long,  lank 
individual  whose  head  seemed  to  protrude  from  one 
side  of  the  coach  and  his  feet  from  the  other.  Ham 
mond  slapped  him  familiarly  on  the  shoulder  and 
asked  him  if  he  had  chartered  the  whole  coach  that 
day." 

:<  'Certainly  not,'  and  he  at  once  took  the  front 
seat,  giving  us  the  place  of  honor  and  comfort.  An 
odd  looking  fellow  he  was,  without  vest  or  cravat. 
Regarding  him  as  a  subject  for  merriment,  we  per 
petrated  several  jokes.  He  took  them  with  the  ut 
most  good  nature  and  joined  in  the  laugh,  though 
at  his  own  expense. 

"After  an  astounding  display  of  wordy  pyro 
technics,  the  stranger  asked,  'What  will  became  of 
this  Comet  business?' 

"Reaching  Indianapolis,  we  went  to  our  hotel, 
losing  sight  of  the  stranger.  After  washing  up,  I 
descended  to  the  portico,  and  there  descried  our  long, 
gloomy  fellow-traveler  in  the  center  of  an  admiring 
group  of  lawyers,  among  whom  were  Judges  Mc 
Lean  and  Huntington,  Albert  S.  White  and  Richard 
W.  Thompson,  who  seemed  amused  at  the  story  he 
was  telling.  I  enquired  of  the  landlord  who  he  was. 

11  'Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Illinois,  a  member  of 
Congress,'  was  the  reply.  I  was  thunderstruck  and 
hurried  upstairs  to  tell  Hammond.  Together  we 
emerged  from  the  hotel  by  a  back  door  and  down 
an  alley  to  another  house,  thus  avoiding  further  con 
tact  with  our  fellow-traveler. 

26 


"Years  after,  when  the  President-elect  was  on  his 
way  to  Washington,  I  was  in  the  same  hotel  looking 
the  distinguished  party  over,  when  a  long  arm 
reached  to  my  shoulder  and  a  shrill  voice  exclaimed, 
'Hello,  Nelson!  Do  you  think  the  whole  world  is 
going  to  follow  the  darned  thing  off?'  These  were 
my  own  words  in  answer  to  his  question  regarding 
the  Comet  in  the  stage  coach.  The  speaker  was 
Abraham  Lincoln. " 

Yes,  Lincoln  would  tell  his  stories,  be  chatty, 
cheerful  and  laugh,  and  yet,  as  Herndon  says,  "You 
could  see,  if  you  had  any  perception,  that  Lincoln's 
soul  was  not  present ;  it  was  in  another  sphere.  He 
was  with  you,  yet  not  with  you ;  familiar  with  you, 
yet  kept  you  at  a  distance.  Lincoln  was  a  reticent, 
secretive,  uncommunicable  man.  He  lived  a  pure 
and  lofty  life.  This  I  know,  and  in  his  practical 
life  he  was  spiritual.  Lincoln's  conscience  was  his 
Court  of  Courts,  from  which  there  was  no  appeal." 


1DUT  now  he  is  in  Congress.  Let  us  see  what 
he  is  doing  there. 

The  Mexican  war  is  on.  The  Whigs  detested 
this  war,  but  all  the  slave  owners  were  pushing  it 
along.  Southern  people  had  migrated  to  Texas 
because  they  could  hold  slaves  there,  and  in  1835 
Texas  revolted  against  Mexico,  and  declared  its 
independence,  defeated  the  Mexicans  and  asked  ad 
mission  to  the  United  States.  The  North  objected, 
but  the  South  voted  it  in,  in  1845. 

Texas  was  fifty  times  as  large  as  Connecticut,  and 
would  make  several  Southern  states.  The  objection 
the  North  had  to  annexation  was  that  it  would  make 
trouble  with  Mexico,  which  it  did.  But  this  was  an 
argument  in  its  favor  with  the  South.  A  war  with 
Mexico  might  bring  them  still  more  slave  states. 


There  arose  at  once  a  dispute  over  the  boundary 
line.  The  American  troops  invaded  what  the  Mexi 
cans  called  their  territory,  and  the  Mexicans  came 
over  and  killed  some  Americans.  Then  President 
Polk  declared: 

"War  exists,  notwithstanding  all  my  efforts  to 
avoid  it." 

Lincoln  was  greatly  disappointed  when,  two  years 
before,  Henry  Clay  was  defeated  and  James  K.  Polk 
was  elected  President. 

Slavery  was  now  the  great  political  question,  and 
Lincoln,  who  was  so  perfectly  acquainted  with  pub 
lic  documents,  and  awake  to  the  principle  that  no 
liberties  must  be  taken  with  the  Constitution,  was 
watching  events  with  the  eye  of  a  jealous  God. 

He  made  a  speech  arraigning  the  President  for  not 
acting  in  good  faith,  and  intimated  that  Polk  was 
deeply  conscious  of  being  in  the  wrong — "that  he 
feels  this  war  crying  to  Heaven  against  him,  and 
trusting  to  evade  scrutiny  by  fixing  the  public  gaze 
upon  the  exceeding  brightness  of  Military  Glory, 
that  attractive  rainbow,  that  rises  in  showers  of 
blood,  that  serpent's  eye,  that  charms  but  to  destroy" 

He  also  introduced  a  bill,  as  Clay  had  done  before 
him,  to  purchase  and  free  all  slaves  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  but  it  did  not  pass. 

When  Taylor  was  elected  in  1848,  Lincoln's 
term  as  Congressman  expired,  and  he  refused  re- 
nomination,  saying,  "Turn  about  is  fair  play."  But 
his  good  work  while  in  Congress  brought  him  many 
invitations  to  speak  throughout  the  East.  The  Balti 
more  press  styled  him  a  "very  keen,  original  fellow, 
and  a  tremendous  wag  withal." 

On  this  Eastern  trip  he  saw  how  impossible  it 
would  be  to  ever  hope  to  reconcile  Northern  Abo 
litionists  with  Southern  slavery. 


Lincoln  held  to  the  idea  that  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  was  sacred,  and  as  long  as  it  per 
mitted  slavery,  slavery  must  be  endured,  and  he 
realized  that  the  reason  slavery  was  considered  right 
in  the  South  and  wrong  in  the  North  was  because  it 
paid  in  the  South  and  did  not  pay  in  the  North. 

He  was  too  clear  visioned  not  to  see  through  all 
the  righteous  sentiment  against  slavery  the  political 
schemes  which  lay  beneath. 

Both  Washington  and  Lincoln  were  guided  by 
their  hearts,  and  not  alone  by  their  heads. 

"Go  to  your  bosom,  knock  there,  and  ask  your 
heart  what  it  doth  know,"  said  the  Bard  of  Avon. 
And  in  his  heart  Lincoln  knew  that  had  William 
Lloyd  Garrison  lived  in  the  South,  under  the  direct 
influence  of  slavery,  breathing  the  same  air  with  the 
owners  of  slaves,  depending  upon  slave  labor  for 
his  prosperity,  he  would  not  have  been  so  pro- 
nmmced  about  Abolition. 

And  Lincoln  knew  that  the  North  was  just  as 
much  to  blame  as  the  South  for  the  introduction 
of  this  same  slavery  into  the  Union,  and  that  because 
ft  didnt  pay  was  the  only  reason  the  North  gave 
it  up. 

"Vice  is  a  monster  of  such  hideous  mein 
That  to  be  hated,  needs  but  to  be  seen; 
But  seen  too  oft — familiar  to  the  face, 
We  first  endure,  then  pity,  then  embrace.'* 

The  North  was  removed  from  this  evil  and  the 
distance  made  it  look  hideous.  Lincoln  knew  this, 
and  brought  it  out  clearly  in  his  Second  Inaugural. 

But  in  the  meantime,  after  his  trip  East,  he  settles 
himself  down  to  business  at  the  old  stand,  and 
quietly  practices  law.  He  knew  what  was  coming, 
but  he  bided  his  time. 

29 


TV/fR.  SPEED  says:  "After  his  first  years  as  a 
lawyer,  he  was  acknowledged  to  be  among  the 
best  in  the  state.  His  analytical  powers  were  mar 
velous.  He  always  resolved  every  question  into  its 
primary  elements,  and  gave  up  every  point  on  his 
own  side  that  did  not  seem  to  be  invulnerable.  One 
would  think  he  was  giving  his  case  away.  But  he 
always  reserved  a  point  upon  which  he  claimed  a 
decision  in  his  favor,  and  his  concessions  magnified 
the  strength  of  his  claim.  He  rarely  failed  in  gain 
ing  his  cases  in  court." 

Honorable  David  Davis  said:  "He  hated  wrong 
and  oppression  everywhere,  and  many  a  man  whose 
fraudulent  conduct  was  undergoing  review  in  a 
court  of  justice,  has  withered  under  his  terrific  indig 
nation  and  rebuke." 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  once  associated  with  Mr. 
Leonard  Swett  in  defending  a  man  accused  of  mur 
der.  He  listened  to  the  testimony  which  witness 
after  witness  gave  against  his  client,  till  his  honest 
heart  could  stand  it  no  longer,  then  turning  to  his 
associate,  he  said,  "Swett,  the  man  is  guilty.  You 
defend  him.  I  can't." 

Swett  did  defend  him,  and  the  man  was  acquitted. 
Lincoln  declined  his  share  of  the  fee,  saying  Swett 
had  by  his  eloquence  saved  a  guilty  man  from  jus 
tice,  and  it  all  belonged  to  him. 

At  another  time,  he  left  the  court  and  the  bailiff 
found  him  in  the  office  of  a  nearby  hotel,  his  feet  on 
the  stove,  in  a  brown  study. 

"Mr.  Lincoln,  the  judge  wants  you,"  said  the 
bailiff. 

"Oh,  does  he?  Well,  you  go  back  and  tell  the 
judge  I  have  to  wash  my  hands/'  He  would  not  go 
back  to  the  case. 

Lincoln  was  indifferent  about  his  dress,  and  care 
less  to  a  fault  about  his  personal  appearance.  How- 

30 


ever,  on  one  occasion,  at  least,  he  is  described  as  hav 
ing  on  a  well  fitting  broadcloth  suit,  black  silk 
cravat,  tied  well  up  around  the  neck,  a  pair  of  highly 
polished  boots,  and  carrying  a  silk  hat. 

This  was  in  the  trial  of  a  case  in  Danville,  Illinois, 
and  it  is  presumable  that  he  wore  the  same  suit  upon 
other  occasions. 

On  these  court  circuit  trips  from  town  to  town, 
there  was  always  a  brilliant  bunch  of  lawyers  and 
judges,  and  they  would  sit  up  late  and  crack  their 
jokes.  On  one  of  these  trips,  Judge  Linder's  daugh 
ter,  with  a  young  lady  friend,  accompanied  him. 

In  the  morning,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  to  one  of  them, 
"Did  we  disturb  your  sleep  last  night?" 

"No,  I  had  no  sleep,"  was  the  reply,  which  seemed 
to  amuse  him.  But  the  ladies  demurred  that  the 
gentlemen  had  the  most  fun  after  the  ladies  had 
retired. 

"But,  Madame,"  said  Lincoln,  "you  would  not 
have  enjoyed  the  things  we  laugh  at." 

Then  he  deplored  the  fact  that  men  seemed  to 
enjoy  and  remember  his  "broad"  stories  better  than 
any  others. 

Judge  Linder  replied  that  he  did  not  remember 
the  "broad"  part  so  much  as  the  moral  that  was  in 
them,  and  to  this  they  all  agreed. 

PHE  "poor  whites"  of  Kentucky  spoke,  in  Lin 
coln's  time,  and  afterward,  the  old  Shakespearean 
English,  and,  uncultured  as  they  were  in  up-to-date 
standards,  yet  the  writings  of  Swift,  Smollett,  John 
son,  Decameron,  etc.,  had  sifted  through  and  tinged 
their  thoughts  and  speech. 

Abraham  Lincoln  had,  no  doubt,  received  an  early 
bias  by  this  influence,  and  besides  this,  anyone  who 
reads  a  straight,  unexpurgated  edition  of  the  Bible 
and  Shakespeare  continually,  must,  if  naturally 

31 


spiritually  minded,  as  Lincoln  was,  unconsciously 
form  the  habit  of  drawing  practical  moral  and 
spiritual  lessons  from  what  seems  to  many  people 
with  less  penetration  and  more  material  minds,  as, 
at  least,  bordering  upon  the  obscene.  (This  is  put 
ting  it  mildly.) 

Lincoln  never  told  a  story  without  a  purpose,  and 
that  purpose  a  moral  and  uplifting  one. 

Mr.  F.  B.  Carpenter,  the  artist,  who,  while  paint 
ing  the  portraits  of  Lincoln  and  his  cabinet,  lived  for 
six  months  at  the  White  House,  speaking  of  the  re 
ports  that  Lincoln  habitually  indulged  in  objection 
able  stories,  says: 

"Mr.  Lincoln,  I  am  convinced,  has  been  greatly 
wronged  in  this  respect.  Every  foul-mouthed  man 
in  the  country  gave  currency  to  the  slime  and  filth 
of  his  own  imagination  by  attributing  it  to  the 
President. 

"It  is  but  simple  justice  to  his  memory  that  I 
should  state  that  during  the  entire  period  of  my 
stay  in  Washington,  after  witnessing  his  intercourse 
with  nearly  all  classes  of  men,  embracing  Governors, 
Senators,  men  of  Congress,  officers  of  the  Navy,  and 
intimate  friends,  I  cannot  recollect  to  have  heard 
him  relate  a  circumstance  to  anv  one  of  them  which 
would  have  been  out  of  place  for  a  ladies'  drawing 
room.  And  this  testimony  is  not  unsupported  by 
others,  well  entitled  to  consideration. 

Dr.  Stone,  his  family  physician,  came  in  one  day 
to  see  my  studies.  Sitting  in  front  of  the  President, 
with  whom  he  did  not  sympathize  politically,  he 
remarked,  with  much  feeling,  'It  is  the  province  of 
the  physician  to  probe  deeply  into  the  interior  lives 
of  men,  and  I  affirm  that  Mr.  Lincoln  is  the  purest 
hearted  man  with  whom  I  have  ever  come  in  con- 


32 


Secretary  Seward  said,  "Mr.  Lincoln  is  the  best 
man  I  ever  knew/  J) 

Henry  B.  Rankin,  in  his  "Recollections  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln/1  says: 

"There  is  certainly  a  great  reward  awaiting  the 
artist  who  can  so  study  Lincoln  as  to  reproduce,  and 
permanently  preserve  for  all  future  time,  his  com 
manding  presence  in  the  dignity  and  composure 
manifested  by  him  on  public  occasions. 

"Every  part  of  Lincoln's  body  betokened  readi 
ness.  A  man  of  action — an  alert,  living,  watchful, 
sensitive,  seeing  personality,  ready  for  service.  In 
speaking,  his  shoulders  were  thrown  slightly  back 
ward,  and  those  far-visioned  eyes  lit  up  with  an  ani 
mation  that  freed  his  countenance  from  any  severity 
of  outline." 


A  ND  it  was  this  man,  this  man  who  in  his  severest 
"^  trials,  gave  utterance,  both  in  words  and  life, 
to  the  most  sublime  truths  of  faith  and  trust,  who 
has  been  called  an  infidel ! 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  Christian  mystic.  Francis 
Grierson,  in  his  little  book  called  "The  Practical 
Mystic,"  approaches  the  truth  most  nearly. 

Mr.  Lincoln  said  himself  to  Mrs.  Rankin : 

"I  cannot,  without  mental  reservations,  assent  to 
long  and  complicated  creeds  and  catechisms.  If  the 
church  would  ask  simply  for  the  Saviour's  statement 
of  the  Substance  of  the  Law:  'Thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself/  that  church  I  would  gladly  unite  with." 

The  Rev.  J.  F.  Jacquess  was  with  him  when  he 
said  this.  He,  Jacquess,  was  afterward  Colonel  of 
the  73rd  regiment  of  Illinois  Volunteers,  in  the  Civil 
War,  and  did  Lincoln  an  inestimable  service  in  go 
ing  on  a  secret  mission  to  Jefferson  Davis.  This 
33 


visit  to  the  Confederacy,  in  time  of  the  darkest  days 
of  the  Rebellion,  was  mystical,  and  if  Lincoln  had 
not  believed  in  the  guidance  of  the  Invisible  Spirit 
of  Truth,  he  never  would  have  yielded  to  Mr. 
Jacquess'  plea  to  be  sent  as  a  messenger  of  the 
Almighty. 

Lincoln  believed  himself  to  be  in  the  hands  of  an 
invisible,  irresistible,  inevitable  power.  He  believed 
in  law — eternal,  universal  law. 

He  never  believed  that  the  value  of  a  God  de 
pended  upon  his  ignoring  great  cosmic  laws,  on  a 
moment's  notice  and  attending  to  the  individual,  but 
he  believed  that  every  individual  was  a  part  of  the 
great  cosmic  whole,  and  came  under  the  same  mate 
rial  and  spiritual  law.  This  he  brought  out  clearly 
in  his  second  inaugural  address. 

Lincoln,  in  his  religious  belief,  in  his  grand 
nobility  of  character  and  of  purpose,  in  his  Christ- 
like  forgiveness,  and  meek,  submissive,  yet  ever  pur 
poseful  spirit ;  always  sinking  himself  in  the  great 
object  before  him ;  and  in  his  closeness  to  the  Great 
Invisible,  was  so  much  above  and  beyond  his  "ortho 
dox"  critics  that  it  is  a  wonder  they  do  not  hear  the 
voice  from  Heaven  saying,  "The  place  whereon 
thou  standest  is  Holy  Ground." 

Lincoln  could  never  have  anything,  religious  or 
otherwise,  "crammed  down  his  throat."  He  had  to 
think  things  out  his  own  way,  and  with  his  own 
light.  And  that  light  at  times  shone  very  clearly. 
He  thought  as  he  was  led  to  think  by  the  light  of 
experience,  affliction  and  reflection ;  and  this  reflec 
tion  was  often  the  reflex  of  his  inner  consciousness, 
for  he  had  a  soul  that  had  traveled  far  on  its  journey 
toward  God.  (Good.) 

His  opinions,  his  decisions,  his  dreams  were  often 
prophetic.  They  were  like  the  Voice  of  Truth  lead- 

34 


ing  him,  and  often  allowing  him  to  catch  a  glimpse 
beyond  the  Veil. 

After  he  was  elected  to  the  Presidency,  he  tells  of 
lying  down  in  Mrs.  Lincoln's  sitting  room  one  day, 
and  seeing  a  double  reflection  of  himself  in  the 
mirror — one  face  more  indistinct  than  the  other  and 
a  little  beyond  it.  He  could  not  account  for  this 
and  thought  it  might  be  some  refraction  of  the  light. 
The  next  day,  he  arranged  himself  in  the  same  posi 
tion  and  the  same  phenomena  was  repeated.  Mrs. 
Lincoln  told  him  she  thought  it  meant  a  renomina- 
tion  for  the  second  term,  but  that  he  would  not  live 
through  it. 

Then,  the  night  before  his  assassination,  he 
dreamed  that  he  was  sailing  in  a  mysterious  vessel 
with  the  swiftness  of  the  wind  toward  a  dark  and 
vanishing  shore.  He  had  dreamed  this  same  dream 
many  times  before,  usually  before  some  great  battle. 

He  repeated  this  dream  to  Secretary  Stanton,  and 
it  is  said  that  Stanton  urged  him  not  to  go  to  the 
theatre  that  night. 

But  dreams,  if  they  are  anything,  are  visions,  not 
warnings.  They  foretell  things  that  are  to  be,  not 
things  that  can  be  avoided. 

Lincoln  said  that  he  was  in  the  hands  of  an  Over- 
Ruling  Providence,  whose  ways  were  inscrutable. 
That  conditions  and  events  controlled  men.  And 
yet  Lincoln  believed  that  man  was  accountable  for 
his  acts,  and  for  the  thought  behind  the  act. 


JLJERNDON  said: 

"Lincoln  is  a  man  of  heart,  aye,  gentle  as  a 
woman's  and  as  tender,  but  he  has  a  will  strong  as 
iron.  If  any  question  comes  up  which  is  doubtful, 
questionable,  and  which  no  man  can  demonstrate, 
his  friends  can  rule  him.  But  when  on  Right, 

35 


Liberty,  Justice,  the  Constitution  and  the  Union, 
then  all  stand  aside!  No  man,  no  set  of  men,  can 
move  him.  There  is  no  failure  here.  You  and  I 

must  keep  the  people  right.     God  will  keep  Lincoln 

j  .  jj 
right. 

After  his  return  from  Congress,  Lincoln  devoted 
much  more  time  to  study  than  before.  His  desire 
was  to  bring  himself  up  to  the  culture  of  the  East. 
He  became  the  leading  lawyer  of  Illinois. 

The  years  passed  on  between  1849  and  1854.  The 
railroads  had  brought  eastern  people  west  to  the 
great  prairie  lands  and  to  the  mining  camps.  About 
3.000,000  immigrants  from  Europe  had  settled 
throughout  the  West.  The  North  and  West  was  a 
preat  hive  of  industry.  Everybodv  worked.  All 
labor  was  honorable,  while  in  the  South  there  were 
the  three  classes — the  slave  owners  who  did  no  work, 
the  slaves  who  did  all  the  work  (three  slaves  would 
do  as  much  as  one  good  northern  white  man),  and 
the  poor  whites,  who  did  just  as  little  work  as 
possible. 

The  comparison,  therefore,  of  thrift  and  enter 
prise  was  decidedly  in  favor  of  the  North.  No 
immigrants  would  go  South  for  obvious  reasons. 

In  1854,  the  territories  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska 
had  become  populous  enough  to  be  admitted  into 
the  Union  as  states,  and  now  occurred  something: 
which  aroused  Lincoln  to  the  depths  of  his  soul  and 
brought  him  firmlv  to  his  feet.  It  was  the  Repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Coir> promise.  This  meant  the  exten 
sion  of  slavery. 

Stephen  A.  Douglas,  then  a  member  of  the  United 
States  Senate,  introduced  a  bill  to  carrv  it  into  Kan 
sas  and  Nebraska.  The  South  carried  the  measure 
and  declared  the  Missouri  Compromise  unconstitu 
tional.  The  North  was  incensed.  Douglas  went 

36 


to  Chicago  to  pacify  the  people,  but  was  hooted 
from  the  platform. 

He  had,  however,  great  charm  and  power,  and  a 
little  later  spoke  at  the  State  Fair  in  Springfield  to 
a  great  crowd. 

It  was  announced  that  Lincoln  would  reply  to 
him  the  next  day.  His  friends  expected  him  to  do 
well,  but  he  far  surpassed  their  fondest  hopes. 
"When  had  he  mastered  the  history  of  the  slavery 
question  so  well!" 

"Disavowing  all  prejudice  against  the  Southern 
people,"  he  declared,  "They  are  just  what  we  would 
be  in  their  situation" 

"It  all  depends  upon  whether  a  negro  is  a  man  or 
not.  If  he  is  not  a  man,  then  he  who  is  a  man  may 
do  just  what  he  pleases  with  him. 

But  if  he  is  a  man,  then  is  it  not  a  total  destruc 
tion  of  self-government  to  say  that  he,  too,  shall  not 
rule  himself? 

When  the  white  man  governs  himself,  that  is  self- 
government,  but  when  he  governs  himself  and  also 
governs  another  man,  that  is  despotism. 

What  I  do  say,  is  that  no  man  is  good  enough  to 
govern  another  man  without  that  other  man's  con 
sent. 

I  say  this  is  the  leading  principle,  the  sheet  anchor 
of  American  Republicanism." 

It  was  about  this  time  that  the  old  Whig  party 
was  merged  into  the  Republican  party. 

The  excitement  over  Kansas  was  intense.  The 
new  state  was  in  the  hands  of  a  pro-slavery  mob. 
We  must  understand  that  the  slave  trade,  the  buy 
ing  and  selling,  as  well  as  the  overseeing  of  the 
slaves,  was  in  the  hands  of  very  common,  brutal 
people.  The  owners  were  usually  kind-hearted 
gentlemen,  who  never  soiled  their  hands  with  this 
kind  of  business,  and  the  mob  that  now  controlled 

37 


Kansas  was  of  this  low  class,  the  traders,  not  the 
owners.  The  capitol  of  Kansas  was  laid  in  ruins, 
and  its  governor  taken  prisoner. 

A  MEETING  was  called  at  Bloomington,  Illi 
nois,  to  form  a  new  party.  Hitherto  there  were 
Whig  Abolitionists  and  Democrat  Abolitionists. 
Now  there  must  be  a  merging  of  all  anti-slavery 
men  into  one  party,  and  here  at  Bloomington  it  was 
formed.  Speaker  after  speaker  was  called  to  the 
platform,  without  producing  any  effect.  Finally 
there  was  a  call  for  "Lincoln!  Give  us  Lincoln!" 

A  tall  figure  arose,  and  walked  to  the  platform. 
It  was  the  crisis  of  his  life  and  he  realized  it.  "He 
had  been  fighting  slavery  for  years  under  the  name 
of  Whig,  now  he  saw  its  futility." 

Very  slowly  he  began  his  speech,  but  as  he  grew 
in  intensity,  he  seemed  like  a  giant  inspired.  It  was 
at  this  meeting  as  noticed  at  the  beginning  of  this 
"flashlight"  that  Lincoln  shouted,  "We  won't  go 
out  of  the  Union,  and  you  shan't!" 

The  effect  was  such  that  reporters  forgot  to  take 
notes,  and  it  was  called  Lincoln's  lost  speech,  though 
parts  of  it  were  remembered  and  preserved.  Thus 
was  born  the  Republican  party! 

This  was  in  May,  1856.  In  the  autumn  of  that 
year  Buchanan  was  elected  President.  Shortly  after 
this  "The  Dred  Scott  Case"  intensified  the  feeling 
of  the  North.  The  annulment  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise — or  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  as  it  was 
called — deprived  Congress  of  any  right  to  regulate 
slavery  in  the  territories,  but  Kansas  and  Nebraska 
being  filled  with  enterprising  Northern  men  and 
foreigners  who  saw  no  chance  for  a  white  man  in  a 
slave-holding  state,  had  voted  themselves  into  the 
Union  as  Free  States.  But  now  the  Dred  Scott 
decision  by  Judge  Taney  again  set  the  North  on  fire. 

38 


Dred  Scott  was  a  slave  belonging  to  an  army 
surgeon.  This  surgeon  went  from  Missouri  in  1834 
and  took  his  slave  with  him  to  Illinois,  and  some 
years  afterward  to  the  territory  of  Minnesota. 
When  they  returned  to  Missouri,  the  slave  claimed 
that,  as  he  had  been  in  a  free  country,  he  was  a  free 
man.  The  case  was  finally  tried  in  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court. 

The  -decision  was: 

"I.  That  a  slave,  according  to  the  Constitution, 
was  not  a  person,  but  a  chattel  or  mere  piece  of  prop 
erty. 

"II.  That  the  Missouri  Compromise,  forbid 
ding  slavery  in  a  part  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase — 
was  not  constitutional,  since  Congress  had  no  right 
to  interfere  with  slavery  in  the  territories. 

"III.  That  a  master  had  as  much  right  to  take 
his  slave  into  a  free  state  as  he  had  to  take  his  horse 
or  cow  or  any  personal  property." 

PHIS  meant  clearly  that  slavery  could  be  carried 
into  any  state.  The  North  was  aflame! 

"What!"  cried  Douglas,  "Oppose  the  decision  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States!  It  is 
anarchy !" 

Lincoln  met  him  squarely  on  this  issue.  Douglas 
readily  acquiesced  to  Lincoln's  proposal  that  they 
should  hold  seven  debates,  in  different  cities  of  the 
state.  The  whole  country  watched  these  debates, 
and  they  were  fully  reported  in  every  leading  news 
paper. 

Douglas  went  in  great  state  and  pomp — a  special 
train  and  band  playing. 

Lincoln  traveled  with  great  simplicity,  though 
the  people  made  many  demonstrations. 

In  the  Lincoln  processions  were  what  Lincoln 
called  a  "basket  of  flowers."  Thirty-two  young  girls 

39 


in  a  resplendent  car,  bearing  banners.  At  Charles- 
town  was  a  thirty-third,  with  a  banner  inscribed, 
"Kansas.  I  will  be  free." 

And  mottoes  like  this : 

"Westward  the  Star  of  Empire  takes  it  way, 
The  girls  link  on  to  Lincoln,  their  mothers  were 
for  Clay." 

"Abe,  the  Giant  Killer,"  etc.  (Douglas  was 
called  "The  little  Giant.") 

Lincoln  soon  discoveed  that  Douglas  was  not  al 
ways  truthful;  and  Lincoln's  absolute  knowledge  of, 
and  truthful  interpretation  of,  the  Constitution,  and 
all  other  public  documents,  was  his  fortress  and 
strength. 

Then  Douglas  soon  made  a  break  with  Buchanan, 
which  brought  Horace  Greeley  to  his  side,  but  lost 
him  Southern  patronage.  This  was  brought  about 
by  Lincoln's  prophetic  astuteness  in  forcing  leading 
questions  upon  him. 

Isaac  N.  Arnold,  in  his  "Abraham  Lincoln,"  says: 

"The  discussions  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas  in 
1858,  were  unquestionably  the  most  important  in 
American  history.  There  had  been  great  debates  in 
the  old  Continental  Congress  on  the  subject  of  inde 
pendence  and  other  vital  questions. 

"The  discussion  between  Webster  and  Hayne  and 
Webster  and  Calhoun  on  Nullification  of  the  Con 
stitution  were  memorable;  but  the  debates  in  1858 
between  Lincoln  and  Douglas,  in  historic  interest, 
surpassed  them  all  and  did  more  than  any  other 
agency  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  overthrow  of 
slavery. 

"The  speeches  of  John  Quincy  Adams  and  Charles 
Sumner  were  more  learned  and  scholarly;  those  of 
Lovejoy  and  Wendell  Phillips  more  vehement  and 
impassioned. 

40 


"But  Lincoln's  were  more  philosophical,  while  as 
earnest  and  able  as  any,  and  his  manner  had  a  sim 
plicity  and  directness,  a  clearness  of  statement  and 
felicity  of  illustration,  and  his  language  a  plainness 
and  Anglo-Saxon  strength  that  reached  the  masses — 
the  mass  of  voters." 

They  were  both  thoroughly  trained  speakers,  but 
entirely  different  in  kind. 

Douglas  said  that  in  all  his  discussions  at  Wash 
ington,  he  had  never  met  an  opponent  who  had  given 
him  so  much  trouble  as  Lincoln. 

Lincoln  had  several  advantages  over  Douglas.  He 
was  always  good  humored.  He  had  the  better  tem 
per,  and  his  wit  and  stories  were  an  immense  ad 
vantage. 

Francis  E.  Browne,  in  his  "Every  Day  Life  of 
Lincoln,"  tells  of  a  most  laughable  retort,  on  one 
occasion,  which  he  made  to  Douglas. 

Douglas  said  in  the  course  of  his  speech,  "The 
Whigs  are  all  dead." 

When  Lincoln's  turn  came  he  said,  as  he  con 
tinued  to  arise  from  his  chair,  higher  and  higher : 

"Mr.  Douglas  has  told  you  the  Whigs  are  all 
dead,  so  you  will  now  have  the  novelty  of  a  speech 
from  a  dead  man,  and  I  suppose  you  might  say, 
'Hark!  from  the  tomb  a  doleful  sound.'  This  set 
the  audience  wild  with  delight. 

Lincoln's  speeches  made  people  think. 

Once  while  Lincoln  was  speaking,  Douglas  be 
came  greatly  excited,  and  he  kept  his  watch  before 
him  while  he  paced  back  and  forth.  Suddenly  he 
cried : 

"Sit  down,  Lincoln.    Your  time  is  up.    Sit  down." 

Turning  slowly   to  Douglas,   Lincoln  said : 

"I  will  quit.     I  believe  my  time  is  up." 

"Yes,"  said  a  man  on  the  platform,  "Douglas  has 

41 


had  enough.     It's  time  you  let  up  on  him."     And 
this  was  the  feeling  of  friend  and  foe  alike. 

A  FTER  these  debates  Lincoln  was  invited  to  de 
liver  a  speech  at  Cooper  Institute,  New  York 
City  (February  27th,  1860).  It  was  the  speech  of 
a  scholar  and  a  statesman,  and  as  it  embodies  much 
that  he  said  in  the  Douglas  Debates,  a  part  of  it  is 
here  given: 

"Senator  Douglas  has  said,  'Our  fathers,  when 
they  framed  the  Government  under  which  we  live, 
understood  this  question  just  as  well  and  even  better 
than  we  do  now.'  I  fully  endorse  this  and  adopt  it 
as  a  text  for  this  discourse. 

Who  were  our  fathers,  that  'framed  the  Consti 
tution  ?' 

I  suppose  the  thirty-nine  who  signed  the  original 
instrument  may  fairly  be  called  'Our  Fathers.' 

What  is  the  question,  which,  according  to  the  text, 
those  fathers  understood  'just  as  well  and  even  better 
than  we  do  now?' 

It  is  this:  Does  the  proper  division  of  local  from 
federal  authority,  or  anything  in  the  Constitution, 
forbid  our  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to 
slavery  in  our  Federal  Territories? 

Upon  this  Senator  Douglas  holds  the  affirmative, 
and  the  Republicans  the  negative. 

This  affirmation  and  denial  form  an  issue,  and  this 
issue,  this  question  is  precisely  what  the  text  declares 
'our  fathers  understood  better  than  we/ 

In  1787,  Lincoln  went  on  to  show,  "The  ordi 
nance  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  territories  became 
a  law  known  as  the  Ordinance  of  '87. 

In  1789,  by  the  first  Congress  which  sat  under  the 
Constitution,  an  act  was  passed  to  enforce  the  Ordi 
nance  of  '87,  including  the  prohibition  of  slavery 
in  the  Northwestern  Territory,  unanimously. 

42 


George  Washington  approved  and  signed  the  bill. 
In  1803  the  Federal  Government  purchased  the 
Louisiana  Country. 

Our  former  territorial  acquisitions  came  from  our 
own  states,  but  this  Louisiana  Country  was  acquired 
from  a  foreign  nation.  Slavery  was  intermingled 
with  the  people  at  the  time  the  purchase  was  made. 

Congress  did  not  here  prohibit  slavery,  but  they 
did  interfere  with  it  in  a  very  marked  way;  thus 
showing  Federal  control. 

Now  and  here  let  me  guard  a  little  against  being 
misunderstood. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  we  are  bound  to  follow 
implicitly  in  whatever  our  fathers  did.  To  do  so 
would  be  to  discard  all  the  lights  of  current  ex 
periences — to  reject  all  progress,  all  improvement. 

What  I  do  say  is  that  if  we  would  supplant  the 
opinions  and  policy  of  our  fathers  in  any  case,  we 
should  do  so  upon  evidence  so  conclusive  and  argu 
ment  so  clear,  that  even  their  great  authority,  fairly 
weighed  and  considered,  cannot  stand.  And  most 
assuredly  not  in  a  case  whereof  we  ourselves  declare, 
'They  understood  the  question  better  than  we' 

And  Judge  Douglas  is  especially  horrified  at  the 
thought  of  the  mixing  of  blood  by  the  white  and 
black  races.  Agreed  for  once — a  thousand  times 
agreed ! 

And  when  he  shall  show  that  his  policy  is  better 
adapted  to  prevent  amalgamation  than  ours,  we  will 
drop  ours  and  adopt  his. 

Let  us  see: 

In  1850  there  were  in  the  United  States  405,751 
mulattoes.  Very  few  of  these  are  the  offspring  of 
whites  and  free  blacks ;  nearly  all  have  sprung  from 
black  slaves  and  white  masters. 

In  1850  there  were  in  the  free  states  56,649  mu 
lattoes,  but  for  the  most  part  they  were  not  born 


43 


there — they  came  from  the  slave  states.  In  the  same 
year  the  slave  states  had  348,874  mulattoes,  all  of 
home  production.  The  proportion  of  mulattoes  to 
blacks  is  much  greater  in  the  slave  states  than  in 
the  free  states.  It  is  worthy  of  note,  too,  that  among 
the  free  states,  those  that  make  the  colored  man  the 
nearest  equal  to  the  white,  have  proportionately  the 
fewest  mulattoes. 

In  New  Hampshire,  the  state  which  goes  farthest 
toward  equality  between  the  races,  there  are  just 
184  mulattoes,  while  there  are  in  Virginia — how 
many  do  you  think?  79,775,  being  23,126  more 
than  in  all  the  free  states  together. 

These  statistics  show  that  slavery  is  the  greatest 
cause  of  amalgamation ;  and  yet  Judge  Douglas 
dreads  the  slightest  restraint  upon  the  spread  of 
slavery,  the  slightest  human  recognition  of  the  negro, 
as  tending  horribly  toward  amalgamation. 

I  have  said  that  the  separation  of  the  races  is  the 
only  perfect  preventive  of  amalgamation.  Such 
separation,  if  effected  at  all,  must  be  effected  by 
colonization.  The  enterprise  is  a  difficult  one,  but 
where  there  is  a  will  there  is  a  way. 

Will  springs  from  the  two  elements  of  moral 
sense  and  self-interest. 

Let  us  be  brought  to  believe  it  is  morally  right, 
and  at  the  same  time  favorable  to,  or  at  least,  not 
against,  our  self-interest  to  transfer  the  African  to 
his  native  clime,  and  we  shall  find  a  way  to  do  it. 

He  ended  by  saying:  'Let  us  have  faith  that  right 
makes  might,  and  in  that  faith,  let  us,  to  the  end, 
do  our  duty  as  we  understand  it/  ' 


TN  one  speech    (at  Peoria)   prior  to  this,  he  said: 
" Slave  states  are  places  for  poor  whites  to  re 
move  from,  not  to  go  to. 

44 


New  free  states  are  places  for  poor  people  to  go 
to,  and  better  their  condition.  For  this  use  the 
nation  needs  the  territories. 

Still  further:  There  are  constitutional  relations 
between  the  slave  and  free  states,  which  are  degrad 
ing  to  the  latter.  We  are  under  legal  obligations  to 
catch  and  return  their  runaway  slaves.  A  sort  of 
dirty,  disagreeable  job,  which,  I  believe,  the  slave 
owners  will  not  perform  for  each  other. 

In  Government  representation,  five  slaves  are  con 
sidered  equal  to  three  whites.  Thus  Maine  has 
581,813  in  population,  and  is  so  represented,  while 
South  Carolina  has  274.367.  Maine  has  twice  as 
many  voters  as  South  Carolina,  and  52,679  over. 
But  each  white  man  in  South  Carolina  is  more  than 
the  double  of  any  man  in  Maine.  This  is  all  be 
cause  South  Carolina,  besides  her  free  people,  has 
384,984  slaves.  He  is  more  than  the  double  of  any 
one  in  this  crowd.  Now  all  this  is  manifestlv  unfair, 
but  it  Is  in  the  Constitution,  and  I  stand  to  it,  fairly , 
fnllv ,  squarely. 

But  when  I  am  told  that  I  must  leave  it  alto 
gether  to  other  people  to  say  whether  new  partners 
shall  come  into  the  firm,  on  the  same  degrading 
terms,  I  most  respectfully  demur. 

I  insist  that  whether  I  shall  be  a  whole  man,  or 
only  half  of  one  in  comparison  with  others,  is  a 
question  in  which  I  am  somewhat  concerned,  and 
one  which  no  other  man  can  have  a  sacred  right  of 
deciding  for  me. 

The  Missouri  Compromise  ought  to  be  restored. 
For  the  sake  of  the  Union  it  ought  to  be  restored. 
If  by  any  means  we  fail  to  do  this,  what  follows? 
Slavery  mav,  or  may  not,  be  established  in  Nebraska. 
But  whether  it  be  or  not,  we  shall  have  repudiated, 
discarded,  from  the  Councils  of  the  Nation  the 
Spirit  of  Compromise ;  for  who  after  this  will  ever 

45 


trust  in  a  National  Compromise!  The  Spirit  of 
Mutual  Concession ;  that  spirit  which  first  gave  us 
the  Constitution,  and  which  has  thrice  saved  the 
Union,  we  shall  have  strangled  and  cast  from  us 
forever. 

At  the  framing  and  adoption  of  the  Constitution, 
they  forbore  to  so  much  as  mention  the  word  'slave* 
or  'slavery'  in  the  whole  instrument.  Thus  the  thing 
is  hid  away  in  the  Constitution  just  as  an  afflicted 
man  hides  away  a  wen  or  cancer,  which  he  dare  not 
cut  out  lest  he  bleed  to  death.  With  the  promise, 
nevertheless,  that  the  cutting  away  may  begin  at  a 
certain  time." 

PHE   great  National   Republican   Convention  of 

1860  approached.     An  immense  "wigwam"  had 

been  built  in   Chicago,  and  on   May   16th  of  that 

year,    the   greatest  convention   ever   assembled    met 

there,  in  that  building. 

Lincoln  was  the  choice  of  Illinois,  Seward  of  New 
York,  for  President.  Then  there  were  Salmon  P. 
Chase  of  Ohio,  Simeon  Cameron  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Edward  Bates  of  Missouri. 

"Abraham  Lincoln,  the  Rail  Candidate,"  was  the 
contribution  from  the  Illinois  members. 

Mr.  Lincoln,  though  he  said  he  had  swung  the  axe 
and  split  rails  from  the  time  he  was  seven  until  he 
was  twenty-one,  never  bragged  about  it.  He  knew 
too  well  that,  because  a  man  could  split  rails,  he 
was  not,  therefore,  necessarily  fit  to  be  President  of 
the  United  States.  On  the  contrary,  he  felt  too 
painfully  his  early  lack  of  education. 

When  told  that  the  people  were  talking  of  mak 
ing  him  President,  he  said,  "They  ought  to  select 
someone  who  knows  more  than  I  do." 

However,  this  sobriquet  had  great  power  with 
the  people,  and  "Honest  Abe,  the  Rail  Splitter," 

46 


whose  text  was  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and 
whose  chart  was  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  was  unanimously  nominated  at  this  conven 
tion,  and  elected  the  folloiuing  November. 

PRESIDENT   OF   THE   UNITED    STATES 
OF  AMERICA 

William  Jennings  Bryan  has  truly  said,  "Lincoln 
owed  his  greatness  and  his  influence  to  his  oratory." 
It  was  the  debates  with  Douglas  that  brought  him 
into  national  prominence.  And  now  we  find  him  at 
the  Helm  of  the  Ship  of  State,  which  he  is  to  guide 
through  the  wildest  storm  the  nation  has  ever  known 
— through  calumny  and  deceit  of  foes,  and  stubborn, 
unyielding  prejudice  of  apparent  friends,  and  the 
antagonism  of  the  press.  Yet  he  held  the  compass 
steady  and  guided  the  ship  through  its  most  tem 
pestuous  waters. 

He  said  once  to  his  critics: 

"I  am  doing  the  best  I  can.  If  Blondin  were 
crossing  the  Mississippi  on  a  tight  rope,  with  a  load 
on  his  back,  would  you  all  call  out  to  him,  'Blondin, 
stand  up  straighter;  Blondin,  lean  to  the  left;  Blon 
din,  go  faster?'  No,  you  would  all  hold  your  breath 
until  he  had  reached  the  other  side." 

Certain  it  is  that  Lincoln  now  began  to  exercise 
the  rich  resources  of  diplomacy,  caution  and  far 
vision  for  which  people  little  gave  him  credit,  but 
they  soon  began  to  see  and  know  that  in  his  quiet, 
unpretentious  way,  he  held  the  reins  of  government 
and  not  any  other  man. 

When  Mrs.  Lincoln  said  to  him  one  day,  "The 
people  say  Seward  is  running  the  government,"  he 
replied,  "Well,  I  may  not  run  it  myself,  but  cer 
tainly  no  other  man  will.  My  only  master  will  be 
my  Maker." 

His  farewell  address  to  his  friends  and  neighbors 
as  he  left  Springfield  for  his  inaugural,  showed  his 

47 


reliance  upon  this  spirit.  The  people  at  the  time 
were  disappointed  that  he  did  not  commit  himself 
to  some  National  Policy,  but  time  has  revealed  the 
wisdom  of  it,  and  has  also  placed  this  speech  with 
the  Gettysburg  address,  as  one  of  the  classics  of  the 
language. 

"Here,"  he  said,  "I  have  lived  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century,  and  have  passed  from  a  young  to  an  old 
man.  Here  my  children  have  been  born,  and  one 
of  them  lies  buried. 

"I  now  leave,  not  knowing  whether  I  shall  ever 
return,  with  a  task  before  me  greater  than  that 
which  rested  upon  Washington. 

"Without  the  assistance  of  that  Divine  Being, 
who  ever  attended  him,  I  cannot  succeed.  With  that 
assistance,  I  cannot  fail.  To  His  care  commending 
you,  as  I  hope  in  your  prayers  you  will  commend 
me,  I  bid  you  an  affectionate  farewell." 


AT  this  time,  seven  of  the  slave  holding  states  had 
left  the  Union,  and  he  indeed  had  problems  be 
fore  him.  When  he  stepped  forward  to  make  his 
Inaugural  Address,  March  4th,  1861,  people  re 
marked  on  his  appearance.  To  please  a  little  girl 
who  asked  him  to  let  his  whiskers  grow  and  make 
himself  "better  looking,"  the  short,  bristly,  black  hair 
was  sprouting  over  chin  and  cheeks.  He  wore  the 
proverbial  black  Prince  Albert  coat,  and  black  silk 
high  hat  and  carried  a  cane. 

Judge  Taney,  who  had  rendered  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  conducted  him  into  office.  (He  who  soon 
would  render  that  decision  null  and  void.) 

As  he  stepped  forward  he  seemed  not  to  know 
what  to  do  with  his  hat  and  cane. 

At  this,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  his  old  friend  and 
enemy  (or  opponent),  who  was  near,  sprang  for- 

48 


ward  and  took  them,  saying,  "I  can  at  least  hold 
his  hat,"  and  he  did  so  throughout  the  ceremonies. 

Lincoln  said  in  part: 

"The  power  confided  in  rne  will  be  used  to  hold, 
occupy  and  possess  the  property  and  places  belonging 
to  the  Government,"  and  speaking  to  Southerners, 
he  said: 

"My  countrymen,  think  calmly  and  well  upon 
this  whole  subject.  Nothing  valuable  can  be  lost  by 
taking  time.  In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow- 
countrymen,  and  not  in  mine,  are  the  momentous 
issues  of  civil  war.  The  Government  will  not  assail 
you  unless  you  first  assail  it. 

"You  have  no  oath  registered  in  Heaven  to  de 
stroy  the  Union,  while  I  have  the  most  solemn  one 
to  preserve,  protect  and  defend  it.  I  am  loath  to 
close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but  friends." 

ORT  SUMTER,  at  the  entrance  to  Charles 
ton  'Harbor,  was  at  this  time  in  command  of 
General  Anderson.  On  April  9th,  Lincoln  sent 
provisions  there  for  the  garrison ;  notifying  the 
Governor  of  South  Carolina  that  he  intended  do 
ing  so. 

It  was  now  plain  that  he  meant  what  he  said  in 
his  Inaugural:  "The  power  confided  in  me  will  be 
used  to  hold,  occupy  and  possess  the  property  and 
places  belonging  to  the  Government." 

But  South  Carolina  had  determined  that  the  gar 
rison  should  not  even  be  kept  from  starvation,  and 
on  April  12th  the  fort  was  bombarded  until  it  fell. 

Three  days  later,  Lincoln  called  for  75,000  troops. 
The  North  was  aflame  and  the  men  came  in  so 
rapidly  that  soon  the  number  swelled  to  92,000  men. 

The  railroads  now  began  to  be  destroyed  in  Mary 
land,  and  Washington  was  in  a  sad  plight ;  in  danger 
both  of  invasion  and  of  famine. 

.  49 


But  slowly  the  troops  came  marching  in.  There 
were  soldiers  to  defend  the  Capitol. 

The  regular  army  was  at  this  time  only  16,000 
men.  Lincoln  ordered  it  increased  by  twenty-seven 
regiments.  Soon  there  were  310,000  volunteers  en 
listed  for  three  years. 

The  next  thing  was  to  care  for  them  properly. 
This  was  a  problem. 

"Preparedness"  seemed  to  be  a  word  not  yet  born 
into  the  vocabulary  of  American  political  economy. 

All  through  January,  February  and  March,  the 
Confederates  had  been  laying  up  ammunition  right 
under  the  noses  of  the  Union  officers. 

Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Tennessee  and  Arkan 
sas  were  slave-holding  states,  but  had  not  seceded. 
When  they  were  called  upon  to  furnish  their  quota 
of  men,  however,  they  joined  the  others,  making 
eleven  seceding  states. 

The  states  of  Delaware,  Maryland,  Kentucky 
and  Missouri  were  all  slave-holding  states,  but  they 
did  not  secede.  They  were  called  the  border  states. 
The  western  part  of  Virginia  was  mountainous  and 
not  adapted  to  slave  labor,  and  so  West  Virginia 
was  now  formed  into  a  state  and  joined  the  Union. 

In  the  mountainous  regions  further  south,  many 
people  were  loyal,  and  about  100,000  of  them  fought 
for  the  Union,  showing  that  the  principle  of  seces 
sion  lay  pretty  close  to  the  purse-strings. 

Jefferson  Davis,  the  President  of  the  Confederacy, 
was  a  man  of  imperious  temper.  He  had,  in  line 
with  his  ambition,  long  been  strengthening  the 
prejudice  and  the  power  of  the  Southern  States,  pre 
paratory  to  a  separation.  It  can  be  truly  said  that 
he  inaugurated  the  war. 

(Not  to  do  Jefferson  Davis  an  injustice  I  will 
say  that  there  are  people  who  disagree  with  this,  and 

50 


think  that  he  was  urged  into  the  war  by  Yancey, 
Rhett,  Toombs  and  others. 

The  Vice-President  of  the  Confederacy,  Alexander 
H.  Stephens,  was  of  very  different  character,  moral 
ly,  intellectually  and  patriotically.  He  said  in  a 
speech  in  Georgia,  "What  right  has  the  North  as 
sailed?  What  interest  of  the  South  has  been  in 
vaded?  What  justice  has  been  denied?  When  we 
of  the  South  demanded  the  slave  trade,  or  the  im 
portation  of  Africans  for  the  cultivation  of  our 
lands,  did  they  not  yield  the  right  for  twenty  years  ? 

"When  we  asked  a  three-fifths  representation  in 
Congress  for  our  slaves,  was  it  not  granted  ?  When 
we  asked  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves,  was  it  not 
given  by  the  'Fugitive  Slave  Law'?" 


AH,  yes!  How  well  Lincoln,  too,  knew  that  the 
^^  North  was  as  much  to  blame  as  the  South  for 
slavery!  And  now  were  the  dogs  of  war  let  loose! 
And  the  "sins  of  the  fathers"  were  about  to  be 
"visited  upon  the  children." 

We  cannot  take  up  in  this  flashlight  of  Lincoln 
the  details  of  this  awful  familv  strife.  Jefferson 
Davis  declared  "Cotton  is  King"  and  fully  expected 
the  sympathy  of  England,  because  her  manufactur 
ing  interests  depended  upon  receiving  the  raw  cotton 
from  the  South  to  make  into  cloth. 

The  North  knew  their  policy  was  to  close  the 
Southern  ports  to  foreign  trade,  and  gain  control  of 
the  Mississippi  River. 

At  first  the  victories  were  altogether  with  the 
South,  and  the  Man  at  the  Helm  found  difficulty 
in  securing  the  right  generals. 

He  had  appointed  in  his  cabinet  men,  regardless 
of  party,  whom  he  thought  he  needed.  Four  of 
them,  Seward,  Chase,  Cameron  and  Bates,  had  been 

51 


his  rivals  for  the  Presidency.  When  his  friends 
remonstrated,  he  said,  "These  gentlemen  have  the 
confidence  of  their  several  states,  and  I  need  them," 
and  he  said  to  them,  "Let  us  forget  ourselves  and 
join  hands  like  brothers  to  save  the  Republic.  If  we 
succeed  there  will  be  glory  enough  for  all." 

Yet  Lincoln  at  first  had  little  sympathy  and  co 
operation  from  his  cabinet.  They  all  thought  they 
knew  more  than  he  and  they  placed  little  trust  in 
him. 

But  they  did  not  know  this  "Master  of  Men." 
Those  far-seeing  eyes  read  right  straight  through 
them  into  the  Beyond.  His  kindness  they  mistook 
for  incompetency,  his  calmness  for  indifference. 
Besides  this,  Lincoln  found  that  Western  Europe, 
if  not  openly  hostile,  was  indifferently  cool.  But 
the  great  heart  of  the  people  had  been  aroused,  and 
he  felt  its  beat  in  the  song, 

"We   are   coming,   Father  Abraham, 

Six  hundred  thousand  strong." 
and  to  the  people  his  great  heart  responded. 

JSAAC  N.  ARNOLD  says:  "At  the  moment  of 
extremest  peril,  when  the  son  of  the  western  pio 
neer,  whom  the  people  had  chosen  for  their  Chief 
Magistrate,  was  confronted  by  the  dangers  which 
gathered  around  his  country ;  when  his  great,  honest 
soul  bowed  itself  to  God,  and,  simple  as  a  child,  in 
deepest  supplication,  asked  His  guidance  and  bless 
ing;  at  this  hour,  from  no  crowned  head,  from  no 
aristocratic  ruler  abroad,  came  any  word  of  sympa 
thy;  but  those  proud  rulers  could  coarsely  jest  at  his 
uncouth  figure,  his  uncourtly  bearing. 

'  'The  great  Republic  is  no  more !     Democracy 
is  a  rope  of  sand/  they  said. 

"But  the  Almighty  answered  that  prayer.  He 
joined  the  hearts  and  linked  the  hands  of  the  Amer- 

52 


lean  people  and  their  President  together,  and  from 
that  hour  the  needle  does  not  more  quickly  point  to 
the  polar  influence  than  did  Lincoln  to  the  highest 
and  God-inspired  impulses  of  a  great  people." 

Nearly  two  hundred  graduates  from  West  Point 
deserted  and  went  over  to  the  South ;  and  yet  among 
officers  born  in  the  seceding  states,  many  of  the  best 
were  loyal,  Scott  and  Thomas,  Meade  and  Farragut, 
among  many  others. 

In  May,  1861,  three  negroes  came  into  General 
Butler's  camp,  saying  they  had  escaped  from  work 
ing  on  the  enemy's  fortifications.  General  Butler 
held  them  as  he  would  any  horse,  cow  or  dog  be 
longing  to  the  enemy,  as  contraband  of  war,  and  set 
them  to  work  on  his  own  fortifications.  This  posi 
tion  was  worth  as  much  as  a  battle  won. 

While  McClellan  said  to  them  (the  South),  "Not 
only  will  we  abstain  from  all  interference  with  your 
slaves,  but  we  will  with  an  iron  hand  crush  any 
attempt  at  insurrection  on  their  part." 


HTHE  Great  Man  in  the  White  House  had  not 
only  to  guide  these  generals  of  his,  with  all  their 
diametrically  opposite  methods,  but  Congress,  his 
Cabinet,  and  his  diplomatic  relations  with  other 
countries,  and,  above  all,  he  had  to  consider  the 
people  of  the  Border  States,  who,  though  owning 
slaves,  still  remained  with  the  Union. 

These  people  he  wished  to  conciliate  and  hold. 
He  knew  that  any  overt  acts  on  the  part  of  his 
generals  toward  slavery  would  antagonize  these 
Border  States,  and  that  their  fifty  thousand  bayo 
nets,  now  in  the  Union  cause,  would  be  turned 
against  the  Union. 

53 


When  General  Fremont  in  Missouri  freed  all 
the  slaves  in  his  military  district,  Lincoln  called  him 
to  account  and  promptly  stated  that  it  was  only  by 
Act  of  Congress  that  slaves  could  be  freed,  and  that 
the  war  was  not  against  slavery,  but  against  secession. 
That  the  war  was  being  waged  to  maintain  and  up 
hold  the  Constitution  and  the  Government.  He  had 
to  take  the  same  course  with  General  Hunter,  Com 
mander  of  the  Department  of  the  South,  who  had 
issued  an  order  freeing  all  the  slaves  in  his  depart 
ment. 

It  was  a  difficult  matter  for  the  Chief  Executive 
to  steer  an  even  course  between  the  demands  of  the 
Abolitionists  on  one  hand  and  the  criticism  of  the 
'pro-slavery  sympathizers  on  the  other. 

He  was  so  overwhelmed  with  office  seekers  from 
the  moment  of  and  before  his  Inauguration,  that  one 
day  when  he  was  particularly  beset,  the  White  House 
physician  being  present,  he  said,  "Doctor,  I  have  a 
breaking  out  all  over  me.  What  do  you  suppose 
it  is?" 

The  doctor  replied,  "I  think  it  must  be  vario- 
loid." 

"Oh,  well,"  he  responded,  "tell  all  the  office  seek 
ers  to  come  and  see  me  now,  for  I  have  something 
I  can  give  them." 

Once  a  delegation  of  prohibitionists  came  and  said 
that  the  reason  the  North  did  not  win  was  because 
the  soldiers  drank  whisky,  and  so  brought  the  curse 
of  the  Lord  upon  them. 

With  a  twinkle  in  his  eye,  Lincoln  said  he  "con 
sidered  that  very  unfair  of  the  Lord,  for  the  South 
erners  drank  much  worse  whisky  and  a  great  deal 
more  of  it." 

The  first  year  of  the  war  was  a  series  of  victories 
for  the  South. 

54 


T  INCOLN  called  the  Representatives  of  the  Bor- 
^  der  States  together  and  urged  and  fairly  begged 
them  to  allow  the  Government  to  purchase  their 
slaves. 

He  said  that  the  cost  of  the  war  for  one-half  a 
day  would  buy  all  the  slaves  in  Delaware  at  $400 
apiece. 

He  argued  that  if  the  Border  States  would  do 
this,  it  would  settle  the  question  with  the  seceding 
states.  That  they  would  not  only  give  up  all  hope 
of  the  Border  States  joining  the  Confederacy,  but 
the  example  set  would  undoubtedly  be  followed  by 
one  and  then  another  as  they  saw  the  wisdom  of  it, 
until  the  Confederacy  would  vanish  away. 

Congress  finally  passed  a  law  to  this  effect,  that  is, 
that  the  Government  would  pay  for  all  the  slaves, 
but  the  Border  States  would  not  hear  to  it.  Their 
contention  was  that  the  war  was  against  disunion, 
and  not  against  slavery. 

This,  too,  was  Lincoln's  position,  though  no  man 
hated  slavery  worse  than  he.  But  it  was  the  en 
forcement  of  the  Constitution  that  gave  him  the 
legal  ground  upon  which  to  stand  in  the  prosecution 
of  the  war. 

At  the  same  time,  he  sent  a  special  message  to 
Congress,  saying: 

"That  the  United  States  ought  to  co-operate  with 
any  state  which  may  adopt  gradual  abolishment  of 
slavery,  giving  to  such  states  pecuniary  aid,  to  be 
used  by  such  state,  in  its  discretion,  to  compensate 
for  the  inconvenience,  public  and  private,  by  such 
change  of  system." 

He  then  sent  word  to  the  South,  saying: 

"This  resolution  was  adopted  by  large  majorities 
in  both  Houses  of  Congress,  and  stands  as  an  authen 
tic,  definite  and  solemn  proposal  of  the  Nation. 
This  proposal  makes  common  cause  for  a  common 

55 


object,  casting  no  reproach  upon  any.  Will  you  not 
embrace  it? 

"May  the  vast  future  not  have  to  lament  that 
you  have  neglected  it!" 

Thus  did  the  great  Chief  Executive  plead  with 
the  South,  as  a  father  pleads  with  disobedient  chil 
dren. 

At  this  time  all  the  slaves  in  the  District  of  Co 
lumbia  were  purchased  by  the  Government  for 
$1,000,000  and  other  considerations;  and  Mr.  Lin 
coln  saw  the  resolutions  he  had  laid  before  Congress 
twenty-odd  years  before,  put  into  operation. 


July  4th,  1861,  Lincoln  sent  this  message  to 
Congress,  called  in  special  session : 

"Much  is  said  about  the  sovereignty  of  states; 
but  the  word  even  is  not  in  the  National  Constitu 
tion,  nor,  as  is  believed,  in  any  of  the  State  Consti 
tutions. 

"What  is  sovereignty,  in  the  political  use  of  the 
term? 

"Would  it  be  wrong  to  define  it  as  'a  political 
community  without  a  political  superior'?  Tested 
by  this,  no  one  of  our  States,  except  Texas,  ever  was 
a  sovereignty,  and  even  Texas  gave  up  the  character 
in  coming  into  the  Union ;  by  which  act  she  acknowl 
edged  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  the 
laws  and  treaties  of  the  United  States,  made  in  pur 
suance  of  the  Constitution,  to  be  for  her  the  supreme 
law  of  the  land. 

"The  States  have  their  status  in  the  Union,  and 
they  have  no  other  legal  status.  If  they  break  from 
this,  they  can  only  do  so  against  law  and  by  revolu 
tion. 

"The  Union,  and  not  themselves  separately,  pro 
cured  their  independence  and  their  liberty. 

56 


"By  conquest  or  purchase,  the  Union  gave  each 
of  them  whatever  of  independence  or  liberty  it  has. 

"The  Union  is  older  than  any  of  the  States,  and, 
in  fact,  it  created  them  as  States. 

"Originally,  some  dependent  colonies  made  the 
Union,  and  in  return  the  Union  threw  off  their  old 
dependence  for  them,  and  made  them  States. 

"Not  one  of  them  ever  had  a  State  Constitution, 
independent  of  the  Union. 

"Of  course,  it  is  not  forgotten  that  all  the  new 
States  framed  their  Constitutions  before  they  entered 
the  Union,  nevertheless,  dependent  upon  and  pre 
paratory  to  coming  into  the  Union. 

"What  is  now  combatted  is  the  position  that  seces 
sion  is  consistent  with  the  Constitution — is  lawful 
and  peaceful.  It  is  not  contended  that  there  is  any 
express  law  for  it,  and  nothing  should  ever  be  im 
plied  as  law  which  leads  to  unjust  or  absurd  conse 
quences.  The  nation  purchased  with  money  the 
countries  out  of  which  several  of  these  States  were 
formed.  Is  it  just  that  they  should  go  off  without 
leave  or  refunding?  The  Nation  paid  very  large 
sums,  in  the  aggregate,  I  believe,  nearly  a  hundred 
million,  to  relieve  Florida  of  the  aboriginal  tribes. 

"Is  it  just  that  she  shall  now  be  off  without  con 
sent,  or  without  making  any  return?  A  part  of  the 
present  national  debt  was  contracted  to  pay  the  old 
debts  of  Texas.  Is  it  just  that  she  should  leave 
and  pay  no  part  of  this  herself  ? 

"If  one  State  may  secede,  so  may  another,  and 
when  all  have  seceded,  none  is  left  to  pay  the  debts. 

"Is  this  quite  just  to  creditors?  Did  we  notify 
them  of  this  sage  view  of  ours  when  we  borrowed 
their  money? 

"The  principle  itself  is  one  of  distintegration,  and 
upon  which  no  Government  can  possibly  endure. 

57 


"Our  popular  government  has  often  been  called 
an  experiment.  Two  points  in  it  our  people  have 
already  settled — the  successful  establishing  and  the 
successful  administering  of  it. 

"One  still  remains — its  successful  maintenance 
against  a  formidable  internal  attempt  to  overthrow 
it.  It  is  now  for  them  to  demonstrate  to  the  world 
that  those  who  can  fairly  carry  an  election,  can  also 
suppress  a  rebellion ;  that  ballots  are  the  rightful 
and  peaceful  successors  of  bullets ;  and  that  when  bal 
lots  have  fairly  and  peacefully  decided,  there  can  be 
no  successful  appeal  back  to  bullets. 

"Such  will  be  a  great  lesson  of  peace,  teaching 
men  that  what  they  cannot  take  by  an  election, 
neither  can  they  take  by  war!' 

Lincoln  always  tried  to  make  everything  he  said 
and  wrote  plain,  simple  and  clear,  so  that  all  the 
people  would  understand  it.  Once  when  one  of  his 
Cabinet  spoke  of  changing  his  wording,  he  said, 
"Well,  I  guess  the  people  will  understand  it." 


A  ND  now  he,  above  all  others,  knew  only  too 
well  what  was  coming. 

The  stubbornness  of  the  conflict — the  impetuous 
determination  of  the  Abolitionists  of  the  North — 
the  proud  spirit  of  superiority  in  the  South,  and  its 
relentless  determination  to  break  the  Union,  were 
pushing  him  forward  toward  a  step  that  he  dreaded 
above  all  to  take. 

Horace  Greeley,  the  brilliant  editor  of  the  New 
York  Tribune,  was  particularly  bitter  because  he 
was  taking  time  to  weigh  the  matter.  To  all  the 
attacks  made  upon  him  this  man  said  never  a  word. 
When  remonstrated  with  for  his  silence,  he  replied, 
"What  good  will  it  do?  If  I  succeed,  my  course 
will  be  vindicated;  if  I  do  not  succeed,  ten  thousand 

53 


angels   could   not   convince   them   that   I   had   done 
right." 

But  to  one  public  letter  from  Horace  Greeley,  he 
replied : 

"August  22nd,    1862. 
Hon.  Horace  Greeley. 
Dear  Sir: 

I  have  just  read  yours  of  the  19th,  addressed 
to  myself  through  the  New  York  Tribune. 

If  there  be  in  it  any  statements,  or  assump 
tions  of  fact  which  I  know  to  be  erroneous,  I  do 
not  here  and  now  controvert  them. 

If  there  be  in  it  any  inferences  which  I  may 
believe  to  be  falsely  drawn,  I  do  not  now  and 
here  argue  against  them. 

If  there  be  perceptible  in  it  an  impatient  and 
dictatorial  tone,  I  waive  it  in  deference  to  an  old 
friend,  whose  heart  I  have  always  supposed  to 
be  right. 

As  to  the  policy  'I  seem  to  be  pursuing,'  as 
you  say,  I  have  not  meant  to  leave  anyone  in 
doubt. 

/  would  save  the  Union 

I  would  save  it  in  the  shortest  way  under  the 
Constitution. 

The  sooner  the  national  authority  can  be  re 
stored,  the  nearer  the  Union  will  be  the  Union 
as  it  was. 

If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save  the 
Union,  unless  they  could  at  the  same  time  save 
slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with  them. 

If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save  the 
Union,  unless  at  the  same  time  they  would  de 
stroy  slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with  them. 

My  paramount  object  in  this  struggle  is  to 
save  the  Union,  and  is  not  to  save  or  destroy 
slavery. 

If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing  a 
slave,  I  would  do  it,  and  if  I  could  save  it  by 
freeing  all  slaves,  I  would  do  it;  and  if  I  could 
save  it  by  freeing  some  and  leaving  others  alone, 
I  would  also  do  that. 

What  I  do  about  slavery  and  the  colored  race, 
I  do  because  I  believe  it  helps  to  save  this  Union, 
and  what  I  forbear,  I  forbear  because  I  do  not 
believe  it  would  help  to  save  the  Union. 

59 


I  shall  do  less  whenever  I  believe  that  what  I 
am  doing  hurts  the  cause,  and  I  shall  do  more 
whenever  I  shall  believe  doing  more  will  help 
the  cause. 

/  shall  try  to  correct  errors  'when  shown  to  be 
errors,  and  I  shall  adopt  new  views  so  fast  as 
they  shall  appear  to  be  true  views. 

I    have    here    stated   my    purpose    according    to 
my  view  of  official  duty,  and  I  intend  no  modifi 
cation    of   my   oft-expressed    personal    wish,    that 
all  men  everywhere  could  be  free. 
Yours, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

While  Abraham  Lincoln  was  writing  this  letter  to 
Horace  Greeley,  he  had  the  Emancipation  Proclama 
tion  carefully  penned  and  laid  away.  But  the  time 
had  not  yet  come. 

Just  about  this  time,  a  delegation  of  clergymen 
called  upon  him,  urging  him  to  take  this  step.  After 
listening  to  their  arguments,  he  said : 

"I  do  not  want  to  issue  a  document  that  the  whole 
world  will  see  must  be  inoperative,  like  the  Tope's 
Bull  against  the  Comet.'  I  have  not  decided  against 
a  proclamation  of  liberty  to  the  slaves,  but  hold  the 
matter  under  advisement.  Whatever  shall  appear 
to  be  God's  will,  I  will  do" 

And  so  this  quiet,  positive,  undemonstrative  man, 
who  carefully  weighed  every  act  of  his  executive 
office,  was  resting  his  case,  the  act  which  he  knew 
would  wreck  the  Southern  States,  upon  the  Spirit 
of  Truth,  which  always  guided  him. 


And  now  what  was  being  done  in  the  army! 

Disaster  after  disaster  seemed  to  follow  the  Fed 
eral  troops.  The  South  was  in  command  of  able 
men.  Robert  E.  Lee,  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  "Stone 
wall"  Jackson,  and  many  other  brave  and  able  men 
were  on  the  Confederate  side.  Both  Lee  and  John- 

60 


ston  disapproved  at  first  of  the  war,  but  went  with 
their  states  when  they  seceded. 

They  seemed  invincible  foes.  In  the  midst  of 
these  depressing  events,  the  South  sent  a  couple  of 
Commissioners  (Mason  and  Slidell)  to  England 
and  France  for  the  purpose  of  securing  aid.  They 
escaped  the  blockade  at  Charleston  and  took  passage 
on  the  British  mail  steamer,  Trent,  from  Havana. 
Captain  Wilkes,  of  the  United  States  war  vessel, 
San  Jacinto,  stopped  the  Trent,  took  off  Mason  and 
Slidell  and  confined  them  in  Fort  Warren  in  Boston 
Harbor. 

The  North  rang  with  plaudits  for  Captain 
Wilkes.  But  there  was  a  man  in  the  White  House 
who  not  only  wanted  to  keep  peace  with  threaten 
ing  England,  but  who  remembered  that  we  had  de 
clared  war  upon  England  in  1812  for  the  very  thing 
that  we  ourselves  had  now  done.  So  in  spite  of  pro 
tests,  in  spite  of  anathemas  that  were  heaped  upon 
him,  this  anxious,  iron-willed  man,  who  always 
stood  for  the  right,  apologized  and  delivered  up  the 
men  to  the  British.  Even  this  victory  therefor 
seemed  a  defeat,  but  it  was  not.  It  was  a  victory 
for  right,  and  saved  war  with  England. 

A  BOUT  this  time  the  iron-clad  Merrimac  was 
"^  set  afloat  to  break  the  blockade. 

On  March  8th,  1862,  this  iron-clad  steamed  into 
Hampton  Roads.  The  American  vessels  poured 
broadside  after  broadside  upon  her,  but  the  balls  all 
rebounded  from  her  slanting  inpenetrable  sides.  She 
rammed  her  iron  beak  into  the  Cumberland  and 
sank  her,  then  turned  to  the  Congress  and  set  her 
afire  and  forced  her  to  surrender. 

The  blockade  at  Norfolk  was  broken! 

The  Merrimac  expected  to  complete  her  work 
the  following  day. 

61 


The  North  was  in  consternation!  But,  behold, 
with  tomorrow  came  a  surprise.  A  queer  looking 
craft  came  into  those  waters.  She  had  a  revolving 
turret,  carrying  two  powerful  guns,  and  an  iron 
plated  deck  almost  level  with  the  water.  It  was 
Ericsson's  "Monitor,"  and  the  launching  of  the 
Monitor  was  due  to  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  was  the 
first  and  only  man  who  encouraged  Ericsson,  and 
urged  that  money  be  supplied  to  construct  it.  It 
had  been  built  with  desperate  energy,  hoping  to  be 
ready  as  soon  as  the  Merrimac. 

The  next  morning  the  Merrimac  steered  boldly 
out  to  finish  her  work,  but  the  Monitor  steered 
boldly  toward  the  Merrimac.  A  duel  of  more  than 
three  hours  ensued.  The  Merrimac  had  met  her 
match,  and  withdrew,  badly  damaged.  The  little 
Monitor  had  saved  the  Union! 


HHE  generals  on  land  offered  all  sorts  of  ex 
cuses  for  defeat. 

"Oh,  I  see!"  remarked  the  astute  President.  "We 
whipped  the  enemy  and  then  ran  away  from  him." 

Explanations  did  not  satisfy.  What  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  wanted  was  to  repair  the  disasters. 

Someone  asked  him  how  many  men  he  thought 
were  in  a  certain  division  of  the  Confederacy. 

"1,200,000,"  he  replied. 

"That  can  hardly  be  possible,"  was  the  rejoinder. 

"Oh,  yes,  our  Generals  all  say  the  enemy  out 
numbered  them  in  each  battle,  three  to  one,  and 
we  have  four  hundred  thousand  men."  This  sense 
of  humor  was,  as  Mr.  Lincoln  said,  the  only  thing 
which  kept  him  from  breaking. 

During  the  four  long  hazardous  years,  when  he 
was  tried  almost  beyond  endurance,  by  disaffection 
among  members  of  his  Cabinet,  censure,  criticism, 

62 


ridicule  that  was  barbaric  in  its  rudeness  and  ignor 
ance,  this  Master  of  Men  held  his  peace  and  kept 
his  heart  in  the  right  place  and  his  faith  firm  as  the 
Rock  of  Gibralter,  not  only  by  his  trust  in  the 
Guidance  of  the  Spirit,  but  by  reading  everything 
humorous  that  he  could  find.  He  kept  the  writings 
of  Petroleum  V.  Nasby  always  near  him  and  some 
times  read  them  to  his  Cabinet. 

McClellan  was  supposed  to  take  Richmond,  but 
he  didn't.  He  just  hung  around  and  wouldn't  move. 

Lincoln  remonstrated  and  urged  him  to  go  for 
ward — then  McClellan  was  discourteous.  The 
country  noticed  this.  But  Lincoln,  ever  forgetful 
of  self,  said,  "I  will  hold  McClellan's  horse  for 
him,  if  he  will  only  bring  us  victory." 

Once  he  said,  "If  McClellan  doesn't  want  to  use 
the  army  for  a  few  days,  I'd  like  to  borrow  it,  and 
see  if  it  cannot  be  made  to  do  something." 

Mr.  Lincoln  studied  the  strategy  of  war,  with  the 
thoroughness  with  which  he  had  always  mastered 
any  difficult  task,  and  he  laid  before  Congress  a 
plan  of  campaign  which  would  have  shortened  the 
war  very  materially.  But  Congress  would  not 
adopt  it. 

Finally,  McClellan  defeated  Lee  at  Antietum, 
September  17th,  1862. 

Lincoln  now  called  his  Cabinet  together  and  said : 

"I  had  determined  that  as  soon  as  the  Rebel 
forces  were  driven  out  of  Maryland,  I  would  issue 
the  ''Proclamation  of  Emancipation."  This  act  was 
to  take  place  January  1st,  1863.  There  was  no  ex 
ultation  in  his  heart.  He  said,  "I  can  only  trust  in 
God  that  I  have  done  right." 

He  spent  the  time  between  September  18th  and 
January  1st,  urging  the  Border  States,  urging  Con 
gress,  urging  everybody,  to  accept  a  measure  which 

63 


he  had  carefully  worked  out  to  emancipate  by  pur 
chasing  the  slaves. 

He  said:     Substantially  to  the  Border  States: 

"Fellow  citizens,  we  cannot  escape  history.  We, 
of  this  Congress  and  this  administration,  will  be  re 
membered  in  spite  of  ourselves.  The  fiery  trial 
through  which  we  pass  will  light  us  down  in  honor 
or  dishonor  to  the  latest  generation. 

We  say  we  are  for  the  Union.  The  world  will 
not  forget  that  we  say  this.  We  know  how  to  save 
the  Union.  The  world  knows  that  we  do  know 
how  to  save  it. 

We,  even  we  here,  hold  the  power  and  bear  the 
responsibility. 

In  giving  freedom  to  the  slaves,  we  assure  free 
dom  to  the  free;  honorable  alike  in  what  we  give 
and  what  we  preserve. 

We  shall  honorably  save,  or  meanly  lose,  the 
last,  best  hope  of  earth. 

Other  means  may  succeed.  This  could  not  fail. 
The  way  is  plain,  peaceful,  generous,  just.  A  way, 
which  if  followed,  the  world  will  ever  applaud, 
and  God  must  forever  bless." 

But  the  Border  States  would  not  heed,  and  the 
measure  to  purchase  their  slaves  was  defeated  by 
their  own  votes. 


A  LL  this  time  the  country  was  clamoring  for 
McClellan  to  be  removed.  He  neither  followed 
up  his  victory  at  Antietam,  nor  would  he  make  a 
move  against  Richmond,  which  was  the  most  im 
portant  step  now.  McClellan  was  a  wonderful 
organizer  and  immensely  popular  with  his  men.  The 
President,  with  his  inexhaustible  patience,  wanted 
to  give  him  every  chance.  Not  only  this,  but  he 
knew  only  too  well,  that  the  moment  he  removed 

64 


him,  his  friends,  those  who  were  now  opposing  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation,  would  spring  up 
around  him  like  Ezekiers  army,  in  the  "Valley  of 
dry  bones." 

The  President,  with  his  prophetic  vision,  read  the 
future  correctly,  as  was  seen  in  the  next  presidential 
campaign,  when  McClellan  was  nominated  for 
President  and  one  of  the  planks  in  the  platform  of 
his  party  was,  "The  war  is  a  failure."  McClellan 
seemed  to  be  doing  nothing  now  to  prevent  that 
failure. 

At  last,  Mr.  Lincoln  relieved  him  from  com 
mand.  But  who  should  take  his  place?  He  took 
General  Hooker,  but  still  there  was  defeat.  Then 
Meade  was  put  at  the  head,  and  on  July  3rd,  de 
feated  Lee  at  Gettysburg.  But  Meade,  in  turn  let 
Lee  escape  across  the  Potomac,  after  his  victory. 

It  seemed  impossible  to  induce  any  General  to 
follow  up  a  victory.  Why?  Was  it  not  largely  be 
cause  of  untrained  service,  inadequate  care  for  the 
wounded,  and  the  consequent  horribleness  in  the 
reaction  after  every  great  battle? 

Both  North  and  South  took  their  raw,  unhard- 
ened  boys  and  men,  and  hurled  them  at  each  other. 
The  suffering  on  both  sides  was  awful  and  unfor 
givable.  If  nations  are  going  to  fight,  let  them  train 
fighters,  and  not  take  boys  from  the  counting-house 
and  peaceful  farm  lands,  from  their  studies  and 
from  every  other  employment.  Let  them  train 
brutes  as  they  train  prize-fighters,  and  set  them  at 
it!  It  is  brutal,  savage,  demoralizing  business,  and 
no  wonder  the  men  deserted! 

How  well  he,  who  was  the  Commander-in-Chief 
of  the  army  and  navy  knew  this,  and  how  his  heart 
bled  for  these  poor  boys! 

The  army  never  forgot  his  hearty  handshake,  and 
his  fervent  "God  bless  you." 

65 


His  acts  of  mercy  and  sympathy  were  so  many, 
that  the  Generals  complained  that  he  ruined  their 
discipline.  But  the  poor  boy  under  twenty,  some 
only  seventeen,  never  failed  of  his  leniency,  could 
he  be  reached. 

They  called  him  "Father  Abraham."  And  on 
one  poor  boy  that  was  shot  to  death  was  found  the 
words,  "God  bless  Abraham  Lincoln'' 

This  boy,  William  Scott,  by  name,  had  been  par 
doned.  He  had  agreed  to  do  double  picket  duty 
to  help  a  friend.  It  was  too  much.  He  was  found 
asleep  at  his  post,  and  ordered  shot,  but  his  mother 
appealed  to  Lincoln — he  wrote:  ff Let  this  woman 
have  her  son."  The  son  was  saved  only  to  die  like 
a  true  soldier,  later. 

To  the  sick  and  the  wounded  both  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Lincoln  were  especially  kind.  Mrs.  Lincoln  sent 
barrels  and  barrels  of  delicacies  from  the  White 
House  larder,  and  many  kind  messages.  The 
wounded  Confederate  soldiers  shared  in  these  acts 
of  kindness,  and  they  looked  upon  Lincoln  as  "a 
true  gentleman." 

He  abhorred  the  death  penalty  for  desertion,  but 
trickery,  deceit,  frauds,  any  absolute  wickedness,  he 
had  little  mercy  for. 


HE  Emancipation  Proclamation  caused  severe 
criticism  from  Southern  sympathizers  in  the 
North,  who  thought  Lincoln  had  no  right  to  issue 
it.  These  people  urged  many  a  man  to  desert. 

"Must  I  shoot  a  simple-minded  boy  for  deserting, 
while  I  must  not  touch  a  hair  of  the  wily  agitator 
who  induces  him  to  desert?"  Lincoln  asked. 

Then  there  was  the  mortal  homesickness. 

"If  the  man  has  no  friends,  I'll  be  his  friend," 
was  the  motto  of  the  Commander-in-Chief. 

66 


And  yet  the  war  had  to  proceed.  During  this 
time  there  was  a  little  man  in  the  Western  Division, 
who  said  little,  but  did  much.  Lincoln  watched 
him.  He  captured  Forts  Donelson  and  Henry  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee  River. 

His  method  was,  "No  terms  except  unconditional 
surrender  can  be  accepted.  I  propose  to  move  im 
mediately  upon  your  works."  While  other  officers 
complained,  this  man  said  nothing.  There  were 
complaints  against  him. 

"I  can't  spare  this  man,"  said  Lincoln.  "He 
fights." 

"He  drinks,"  they  said. 

"Tell  me  the  brand  of  liquor,"  said  the  harassed 
but  ever  ready-witted  President,"  and  I'll  send  a 
barrel  to  some  of  my  other  generals." 

Finally,  in  July,  1862,  when  Halleck  was  called 
to  Washington,  as  Commander-in-Chief,  this  man 
Grant  was  put  at  the  head  of  the  Western  Division. 
The  opening  of  the  Mississippi  was  now  the  im 
portant  thing  in  the  West,  the  capture  of  Richmond 
in  the  East. 

Then  the  President  sent  Charles  A.  Dana,  the 
brilliant  young  newspaper  man  to  see  what  Grant 
was  doing.  He  wrote  back,  "Grant  is  a  General 
whom  nothing  can  turn  from  a  purpose." 

Then  Vicksburg  was  taken  on  the  same  day  with 
Gettysburg. 

Grant  was  too  busy  to  write  about  it,  and  asked 
Dana  to  do  it  for  him.  Soon  after,  he  saved  East 
Tennessee,  by  driving  the  enemy  from  the  moun 
tains,  Lookout  Mountain  and  Missionary  Ridge 
(battles  of  Chattanooga  and  Chickamauga).  With 
him  were  the  gallant  Rosecrans,  Thomas,  and  Gar- 
field. 

67 


Grant  was  summoned  to  Washington.     "What 
was  wanted?" 

"Take  Richmond,"  the  President  replied. 


HTHEN    the    President    called    for    more    troops. 

Chicago   sent   a   delegation   to   protest    against 

sending  more  men.     Lincoln  showed  this  delegation 

that  he  could  be  bitter  on  occasion,  as  well  as  firm. 

"After  Boston,"  he  said  to  them,  "Chicago  has 
been  the  chief  instrument  in  bringing  about  this 
war  on  the  country.  It  is  you  who  are  largely 
responsible  for  making  blood  flow  as  it  has.  You 
called  for  war  until  we  had  it.  You  called  for 
emancipation,  and  I  have  given  it  to  you.  What 
ever  you  asked  for,  you  have  had,  and  now  you  come 
here,  begging  to  be  let  off  from  furnishing  the  quota 
of  men  necessary  to  prosecute  the  war  which  you 
yourselves  have  brought  about. 

"And  you,  Medill,"  turning  to  the  editor,  "you 
and  your  Chicago  Tribune  have  had  more  influence 
than  any  paper  in  the  North  in  making  this  war. 

"You  can  influence  great  masses,  and  yet  you 
cry  to  be  spared  when  your  cause  is  suffering.  Go 
home  and  send  us  those  men!'  And  they  did. 


HPHE   battle   of   Gettysburg  was   a   hard   fought 
battle  and  many  brave  men  fell  upon  that  field. 
A  part  of  this  field  was  afterward  set  apart  as  a 
National  Cemetery,  dedicated  to  these  heroes. 

The  nineteenth  of  November  following  the  battle, 
at  the  dedication  of  this  cemetery,  the  President 
spoke  the  following  words,  which  have  been  fittingly 
called, 

68 


"A  PERFECT  TRIBUTE." 

"Four  score  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers 
brought  forth  upon  this  Continent 

A  New  Nation 

Conceived  in  Liberty  and  dedicated  to  the  propo 
sition  that 

All  men  are  created  equal. 

Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil  war,  testing 
whether  that  nation;  or  any  Nation  so  conceived 
and  so  dedicated^ 

Can  long  endure. 

We  are  met  on  a  great  battlefield  of  that  war. 
We  are  met  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  it  as  the  final 
resting  place  of  those  who  here 

Gave  their  lives 

that 

That  nation  might  live. 

It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper  that  we  should 
do  this. 

But  in  a  larger  sense,  we  cannot  dedicate — we 
cannot  consecrate — we  cannot 

Hallow  this  ground. 

The  brave  men,  living  and  dead,  who  struggled 
here  have  consecrated  it  far 

beyond  our  Power  to  add,  or  detract. 
The  world  will  little  note,  nor  long  remember, 
what  we  say  here,  but  it  can 

Never  forget  what  they  did  here. 
It  is  for  us,  the  living  rather,  to  be  dedicated  here 
to  the  unfinished  work  they  have  thus  far  so  nobly 
carried  on.     It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated 
to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us, 

That  from  these  honored  dead,  we  take  increased 
devotion  to  that  cause  for  which  they  here  gave  the 

last  full  measure  of  devotion. 

That  we  here  highly  resolve  that  these  dead 

Shall  not  have  died  in  vain; 

69 


That  this  Nation,  shall  under  God,  have  a 

New  birth  of  Freedom; 
and  that 

Government  of  the  people,  by  the  people  and  for 
the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  Earth'' 

P  HE  door-keepers  of  the  White  House,  had 
orders  that  no  matter  how  great  the  throng, 
Lincoln  would  always  see  anyone  who  had  a  petition 
for  saving  life. 

One  day,  the  Hon.  Thaddeus  Stephens  called  with 
a  lady  whose  son  had  been  ordered  shot. 

After  listening  patiently  to  the  story,  Lincoln 
wrote  a  pardon.  Her  gratitude  was  so  great  that 
she  could  not  speak. 

Going  down  the  steps,  she  stopped  and  exclaimed, 
"I  knew  it  was  a  Copperhead  lie!" 

"What  do  you  mean,  Madame?"  said  Mr. 
Stephens. 

"Why,  they  told  me  he  was  an  ugly  looking  man. 
I  think  he  is  the  handsomest  man  I  ever  saw  in  my 
life." 

Mr.  D.  R.  Locke  (Petroleum  V.  Nesby)  of 
whose  writings  Lincoln  was  so  fond,  said: 

"Those  who  accused  Lincoln  of  frivolity,  never 
knew  him.  I  never  saw  a  more  thoughtful  face.  I 
never  saw  a  more  dignified  face.  I  never  saw  so 
sad  a  face. 

He  had  humor,  of  which  he  was  entirely  uncon 
scious,  but  it  was  not  frivolity.  He  said  wonder 
fully  witty  things,  but  not  from  any  desire  to  be 
witty. 

He  never  cared  how  he  made  a  point,  so  long 
as  he  made  it,  and  he  never  told  a  story  for  the 
mere  purpose  of  telling  it. 

It  was  always  to  illustrate  or  drive  home  some 
truth.  He  was  a  master  of  satire,  but  it  was  always 

70 


kindly,  except  when  aimed  at  some  horrible  injus 
tice.  Then  it  was  terrible.  Intentional  wickedness 
he  never  spared." 

Lincoln  said,  "Perhaps  I  have  too  little  resent 
ment,  but  I  never  thought  it  paid.  A  man  has  no 
time  to  spend  half  his  life  in  quarrels." 

\  \7  HEN  he  appointed  Stan  ton  Secretary  of  War, 
it  was  not  because  he  wanted  him,  but  be 
cause  the  country  needed  him. 

Stanton  had  been  fairly  brutal  in  his  speech  and 
conduct  toward  Mr.  Lincoln.  And  it  was  Stanton 
who  so  ignored  him  that  hot  summer  day  in  Cin 
cinnati,  as  was  noticed  at  first  in  this  flashlight: 

"We  may  have  to  treat  him,"  said  the  President, 
"as  they  sometimes  are  obliged  to  treat  a  Methodist 
minister  I  know  of  out  West.  He  gets  wrought 
up  to  such  a  pitch  of  excitement  in  his  prayers,  that 
they  are  obliged  to  put  bricks  in  his  pockets  to  keep 
him  down.  We  may  have  to  serve  Stanton  that  way, 
but  I  guess  we'll  let  him  jump  a  while  first." 

Absolutely  unperturbed,  the  President  was  sure 
of  managing,  or  at  least  of  not  being  managed  by 
Stanton. 

"I  have  faith  in  such  men,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln. 
"They  stand  between  the  nation  and  perdition." 

He  seemed  to  have  made  some  arrangement  with 
Stanton,  whereby  he  would  not  as  a  rule  over-ride 
his  decisions. 

Judge  Baldwin,  of  California,  wanted  a  pass 
through  the  lines  to  see  his  brother  in  Virginia. 
There  seemed  no  good  reason  not  to  grant  it,  as  he 
was  a  good  Union  man. 

"Have  you  applied  to  General  Halleck,"  asked 
the  President. 

"Yes,"  answered  the  Judge,  "and  met  with  a 
flat  refusal." 

71 


"Then  you  must  see  Stanton." 

"I  have,  with  the  same  result." 

"Well,  then,  I  can  do  nothing,"  said  the  Presi 
dent,  with  a  smile,  "for  you  must  know  I  have 
very  little  influence  in  this  administration." 

The  President's  patience  was  illustrated  when 
Congressman  Lovejoy  called  with  some  others  to 
arrange  a  mingling  of  Eastern  and  Western  troops 
for  the  purpose  of  promoting  a  feeling  of  national 
unity. 

Mr.  Lincoln  approved  of  the  plan  and  wrote  a 
note  to  his  Secretary  of  War. 

Mr.  Stanton  refused  to  carry  it  out. 

"But  we  have  the  President's  order,  sir,"  said 
Mr.  Lovejoy. 

"Did  Lincoln  give  you  an  order  of  that  kind?" 
asked  the  Secretary. 

"He  did,  sir." 

"Then  he's  a  damned  fool." 

"Do  you  mean  to  say  the  President  is  a  damned 
fool?"  asked  the  Congressman,  in  amazement. 

"Yes,  sir,  if  he  gave  you  an  order  like  that." 

Mr.  Lovejoy  reported  this  to  the  President. 

"Did  Stanton  say  I  was  a  damned  fool?" 

"He  did,  sir,  and  repeated  it." 

"If  Stanton  said  I  was  a  damned  fool,"  concluded 
Mr.  Lincoln,  "then  I  must  be  one,  for  he  is  nearly 
always  right  and  generally  says  what  he  means. 
I  will  step  over  and  see  him." 

The  President  did  this,  and  the  matter  was 
quickly  adjusted. 

"Gentlemen,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  on  one  occasion, 
"it  is  my  duty  to  submit.  I  cannot  add  to  Mr. 
Stanton's  troubles.  His  position  is  one  of  the  most 
difficult  in  the  world. 

72 


"Thousands  in  the  army  blame  him  because  they 
are  not  promoted,  and  other  thousands  out  of  the 
army  blame  him  because  they  are  not  appointed. 

"The  pressure  upon  him  is  immeasurable  and  un 
ending. 

"He  is  the  rock  on  the  beach  of  our  national 
ocean,  against  which  the  breakers  dash  and  roar 
without  ceasing. 

"He  rights  back  the  angry  waters  and  prevents 
them  from  undermining  and  overwhelming  the  land. 

"Gentlemen,  I  do  not  see  how  he  survives.  Why 
he  is  not  crushed  and  torn  to  pieces. 

"Without  him  I  should  be  destroyed.  He  per 
forms  his  task  superhumanly. 

"Now  do  not  mind  this  matter,  for  Mr.  Stanton 
is  right,  and  I  cannot  wrongly  interfere  with  him." 

Thus  did  Abraham  Lincoln  generously  laud  the 
man  who  heretofore  had  never  ceased  to  bitterly 
criticise  him,  tho  he  had  generously  appointed  Stan- 
ton  to  the  (at  that  time)  most  important  position 
in  his  Cabinet.  Self  did  not  enter  into  Lincoln's 
calculations. 

Edwin  M.  Stanton  was  as  true  as  a  die,  but  he 
had  a  high  temper,  strong  personal  likes  and  dis 
likes,  and  no  sense  of  humor. 

Lincoln  could  not  look  upon  the  Confederate 
soldiers  with  the  bitter  feeling  exhibited  by  Stanton. 

Many  of  these  wished  to  be  discharged  from 
prison  upon  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
Union ;  and  it  was  only  by  the  most  tactful  methods 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  could  induce  Mr.  Stanton  to  sign 
an  order  for  their  discharge,  but  by  such  means  the 
Secretary  would  respond: 
"Mr.  President: 

Your  order  for  the  discharge  of  any  prisoners  of 
war,  will  be  cheerfully  and  promptly  obeyed/' 

73 


And  so  the  "Master  of  Men"  handled  this  most 
difficult  man,  and  gained  whatever  it  was  his  pur 
pose  to  gain. 

t 

THERE  is  but  one  contingency  that  can  cause 
your  defeat  for  a  second  term,"  one  of  Lin 
coln's  friends  said  to  him  about  this  time   (1863), 
"and  that  is  Grant's  capture  of  Richmond  and  his 
nomination  for  the  Presidency." 

"Well,"  replied  Mr.  Lincoln,  shrewdly,  "I  feel 
about  that  very  much  as  the  man  felt  who  said  he 
didn't  want  to  die  particularly,  but  if  he  had  to 
die,  that  was  precisely  the  disease  he  would  like  to 
die  of." 


TN  an  address  at  the  Sanitary  Fair,  Baltimore, 
1  April  18,  1864,  Lincoln  said: 

"The  world  has  never  had  a  good  definition  of 
the  word  'Liberty,'  and  the  American  people  are, 
just  now,  in  much  need  of  one. 

"We  all  declare  for  'Liberty!  but  in  using  the 
same  word,  we  do  not  mean  the  same  thing. 

"With  some  the  word  'Liberty'  may  mean  for 
each  man  to  do  as  he  pleases  with  himself  and  the 
products  of  his  labor;  while  with  others,  the  same 
word  may  mean  for  some  men  to  do  as  they  please 
with  other  men,  and  the  products  of  other  men's 
labor. 

"Here  are  two,  not  only  different,  but  incompat 
ible  things,  called  by  the  same  name  'Liberty.' 

"And  it  follows  that  each  of  these  things  is,  by 
respective  parties,  called  by  two  different  and  in 
compatible  names — Liberty  and  Tyranny. 

"The  shepherd  drives  the  wolf  from  the  sheep's 
throat,  for  which  the  slieep  thanks  the  shepherd,  as 
his  liberator,  while  the  wolf  denounces  him  for  the 

74 


same  act,  as  the  destroyer  of  liberty.     (Especially  as 
the  sheep  was  a  black  one.) 

"Plainly  the  sheep  and  the  wolf  are  not  agreed 
upon  the  word  'Liberty.'  " 


AS  in  Lincoln's  day,  so  today,  it  is  the  question — 
Liberty — that  confronts  us. 

The  things  that  come  out  into  the  open  can  be 
met  and  fought,  but  the  things  that  are  hidden  away 
in  dark  places  are  a  harder  matter  to  fight. 

In  the  late  world  war,  it  seemed  as  though  the 
flood  gates  of  Hell  had  been  opened,  and  they  are 
not  yet  entirely  closed.  There  are  hellish  plots  now 
slinking  into  dark  corners,  because  they  can  not 
stand  the  light.  They  are  grinning  with  wicked 
leers,  waiting  the  opportune  moment  to  strangle  our 
fair  Goddess  "Liberty." 

"Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty." 

It  was  this  "Eternal  Vigilance,"  of  which  people 
never  dreamed,  which  aged  the  care-worn,  uncom 
municative  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and 
Navy — the  man  in  the  White  House  who  was  try 
ing  to  keep  the  Ship  of  State  from  going  on  the 
rocks. 

While  the  press  was  cartooning  the  President, 
and  bringing  its  every  line  to  bear  upon  a  "Change 
of  Administration,"  while  he  was  being  lampooned 
for  not  bringing  to  justice  the  perpetrators  of  the 
New  York  Draft  Riots,  what  was  happening? 


TPHIS  sketch  would  not  be  complete  unless  the 
light  flashed  into  these  hidden,  iniquitous  by 
paths,  filled  with  terror  unsuspected. 

The  reason  that  Mr.  Lincoln  kept  quiet  about 
the    New   York    Riots  was  because    at    that    time 

75 


throughout  the  North  (as  early  as  the  summer  of 
1863)  there  were  treasonable  organizations  being 
formed,  under  the  names  of  "The  Sons  of  Liberty/' 
Knights  of  the  "Golden  Circle/*  and  others,  the 
object  of  which  was  the  disruption  of  the  North. 

They  had  their  agents  in  Canada.  Lincoln  knew 
of  this  and  was  quietly  investigating. 

He  did  not  want  to  stir  up  this  hornet's  nest,  and 
have  two  rebellions  on  his  hands. 

General  Rosecrans  made  a  full  discovery  of  this 
conspiracy  in  February,  1864,  soon  after  he  was 
placed  in  command  of  the  Department  of  Missouri. 

His  spies  joined  the  order,  were  admitted  to  its 
secret  conclaves,  and  they  ascertained  that  it  was  a 
gigantic  organization,  spreading  over  the  Western 
states. 

The  Commanders  were  C.  L.  Vallandingham,  of 
Ohio,  and  General  Sterling  Price,  of  Missouri.  It 
was  a  military  organization,  and  claimed  a  member 
ship  of  500,000,  pledged  to  "take  up  arms  against 
any  Government  found  waging  war  against  a  people 
endeavoring  to  establish  a  government  of  their  own 
choice." 

They  were  in  co-operation  with  Confederate 
troops,  which  were  to  come  from  Canada  as  well  as 
from  the  South. 

There  was  a  concerted  plan  to  liberate  all  Con 
federate  prisoners  at  Camp  Douglas,  Camp  Mor 
ton,  Johnson's  Island,  etc.,  supplying  arms  which 
were  secretly  brought  in.  There  was  a  vast  plot 
to  burn  Chicago,  wrap  the  West  in  flames,  separate 
the  East  from  the  West  and  win  for  the  South. 

The  story  of  how  this  diabolical  plan  involving 
universal  death  and  distress  was  prevented  is  most 
thrilling. 

Colonel  Maurice  Langhorn's  statement  regarding 
the  part  he  played  in  "scotching  the  snake  and  kill- 

76 


ing  it,"  as  Lincoln  called  it,  is  in  Johns  Hopkins 
University.  There  is  not  room  to  say  more  here, 
but  in  Mr.  James  R.  Gilmore's  Recollections  of 
Mr.  Lincoln,  there  is  a  very  full  and  thrilling  ac 
count  of  it. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  secret 
mission  of  Colonel  J.  F.  Jacquess,  to  the  Confed 
erate  leaders.  He  went  as  a  messenger  of  the  Al 
mighty,  and  it  was  Lincoln's  mystical  reliance  and 
hold  upon  the  Unseen,  which  gave  him  faith  in  this 
mission  of  Jacquess'. 

By  almost  a  miracle,  he  reached  the  Confederate 
leaders  and  gained  much  valuable  information, 
though  he  did  not  attain  his  object. 

He  wanted  to  go  again,  and  this  time  Lincoln 
persuaded  Mr.  James  R.  Gilmore  to  accompany 
him,  and  take  proposals  to  Jefferson  Davis  to  end 
the  war. 

These  proposals  were  private  and  confidential, 
and  Mr.  Gilmore  made  them  as  coming  from  Mr. 
Lincoln,  but  not  authoritatively.  They  were,  in 
part,  these: 

"4th.  All  acts  of  secession  to  be  regarded  as 
nullities;  and  the  late  rebellious  states  to  be  treated 
as  though  they  had  never  attempted  to  secede  from 
the  Union. 

"5th.  The  sum  of  $5,000,000  in  United  States 
stock  to  be  issued,  and  divided  between  the  late 
slave  states,  emancipated  by  my  proclamation.  This 
sum  to  be  divided  among  the  late  slave  owners, 
equally  and  equitably,  at  the  rate  of  one-half  the 
value  of  their  slaves  in  the  year  1860,  and  if  any 
surplus  should  remain,  it  to  be  returned  to  the 
United  States  Treasury." 

Had  these  terms  to  Mr.  Davis  been  accepted,  the 
South  would  have  come  out  of  the  war  in  much 
better  shape  than  the  North,  and  the  long  and  ter- 

77 


rible  years  of  reconstruction  would  have  been 
avoided. 

But  Jefferson  Davis  would  have  none  of  it.  It 
was  Independence,  or  fight  it  out. 

This  was  the  last  offer  made  by  Mr.  Lincoln,  and 
showed  the  unresentful  generosity  of  his  heart. 

When  Mr.  Gilmore  returned  after  the  hazardous 
trip,  he  spread  the  views  of  Mr.  Davis  out  fully  in 
the  Press.  The  news  went  like  wildfire  through  the 
North,  and  from  the  people — the  Great  People — de 
spite  the  ambitious  leaders  of  factions,  a  cry  went  up 
for  the  re-election  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  as  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States. 


TPON  being  congratulated  upon  his  renomina- 
tion,  Lincoln  said: 

"I  do  not  allow  myself  to  suppose  that  either  the 
Convention  or  the  League  has  concluded  that  I  am 
either  the  greatest  or  the  best  man  in  America,  but 
rather  they  have  concluded  'not  to  swap  horses 
while  crossing  the  river.'  ' 

This  maxim  of  Lincoln's  has  become  a  part  of 
every-day  speech. 

With  the  support  of  Meade  and  Hancock,  Grant 
was  now  so  firmly  entrenched  about  Richmond  that 
it  was  impossible  for  the  forces  of  the  South  to  dis 
lodge  him — and  the  war  was  nearly  over  and  my 
brief  story  is  nearly  told. 

What  has  been  written  is  for  those  who  think, 
but  have  not  time  to  peruse  long  volumes. 

If  history  is  what  Voltaire  calls  it,  "A  lie  which 
men  agree  to  call  the  truth,"  then,  indeed,  is  the 
life  of  any  Great  Man,  in  the  light  of  example, 
most  futile. 

I  have  gleaned  from  innumerable  books  on  Abra 
ham  Lincoln,  the  facts  which,  to  me,  stand  out  as 

78 


flashlights  upon  his  character,  his  influence,  his  force 
in  welding  this  nation  into 

ONE  POWERFUL  UNION. 

Many  incidents  are  necessarily  omitted,  but  what 
is  herein  stated  are  facts,  not  fiction. 

I  have  had  three  dominant  ideas  in  mind  while 
writing,  and  if  they  have  been  made  clear,  you 
must  have  observed  that  they  were — partly:  Lincoln  s 
absolute  knowledge  of,  and  thorough  acquaintance 
with,  all  public  documents. 

It  was  this  thoroughness  which  made  him  always 
from  young  boyhood  the  Master. 

He  was  very,  very  shy  when  a  child.  He  seemed 
to  feel  his  awkwardness  and  his  poor  attire,  for  of 
all  the  boys,  he  was  clothed  the  worst.  He  did  not 
at  one  time  during  that  short  school  period  of  less 
than  a  year,  join  in  the  sports  with  others,  but 
stood  bashfully  apart. 

One  day,  however,  the  bully  of  the  crowd  grabbed 
him  and  engaged  him  in  a  fight.  The  boy  "Abe," 
then  as  always,  downed  his  antagonist,  and  there 
after  was  looked  upon  as  a  "good  fellow,"  for  his 
physical  as  well  as  his  mental  strength. 

The  same  thing  happened  after  he  went  to  New 
Salem  at  twenty-one,  when  he  treated  John  Arm 
strong,  another  bully,  like  a  "will  o'  the  wisp,"  and 
afterward  was  a  devoted  friend  of  the  family,  sav 
ing  a  brother  from  the  gallows,  when  he  practiced 
law. 

He  was  a  true  American  because  he  knew  what 
it  meant  to  be  a  true  American. 

He  was  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  heroic  spirit 
of  those  who  made  the  nation.  He  saw  things  from 
their  outlook,  to  which  was  added  the  experience 
of  after  events  of  which  he  had  a  perfect  knowl 
edge.  To  this  knowledge  he  added  the  mastery  of 
character. 

79 


He  said  in  an  address  in  Springfield,  as  far  back 
as  1837,  just  after  he  had  been  admitted  to  the  bar: 

"Let  every  man  remember  that  to  violate  the  law 
is  to  trample  on  the  blood  of  his  father,  and  to  tear 
the  character  of  his  own  and  his  children's  liberty. 

"Let  reverence  for  the  laws  be  breathed  by  every 
American  mother  to  the  lisping  babe  who  prattles  on 
her  lap. 

"Let  it  be  taught  in  the  schools,  in  seminaries  and 
colleges. 

"Let  it  be  written  in  primers,  spelling  books  and 
almanacs. 

"Let  it  be  preached  from  the  pulpit,  proclaimed 
in  legislative  halls,  and  enforced  in  the  Courts  of 
justice. 

"In  short,  let  it  become  the  political  religion  of 
the  nation,  and  let  the  old  and  the  young,  the  rich 
and  the  poor,  the  grave  and  the  gay  of  all  sexes  and 
tongues  and  colors  and  conditions  sacrifice  unceas 
ingly  upon  its  altars" 

T/I7HO  shall  say  that  Abraham  Lincoln  did  not 
live  up  to  this  standard  which,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-six,  he  set  before  his  fellow  citizens? 

And  although  Abraham  Lincoln  said  these  words 
over  eighty  years  ago,  they  hold  just  as  true  today. 
Circumstances  may  change,  new  difficulties  may 
arise,  enemies  may  be  strange  and  different,  but 
principles  remain  ever  the  same;  and  there  never 
was  a  day  in  the  varied  trials  of  our  Beloved  Coun 
try  when  the  sterling  truths  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
needed  to  be  more  carefully  taught  and  rigidly  en 
forced  than  today. 

f  MAXIM  of  this  Master  of  Men  was,  "Truth 
is  your  truest  friend,  no  matter  what  the  cir 
cumstances  are" 

80 


And  once  when  he  was  asked  by  a  politician  to 
sign  a  questionable  bill  that  a  certain  good  object 
might  result,  he  replied: 

"You  may  torture  my  soul,  you  may  burn  my 
body,  and  scatter  the  ashes  to  the  winds  of  Heaven, 
but  you  will  never  get  me  to  subscribe  to  a  measure 
which  I  know  to  be  wrong,  even  if  by  doing  so  good 
may  result" 

This  was  Abraham  Lincoln's  character.  It  was 
high,  clean  and  true.  This  is  why  people  trusted 
him. 

This  is  why  his  name  will  always  stand  out  as 
Great — like  that  of  Washington — before  the  nation. 

HE  WAS  ABSOLUTELY  TRUE. 

Then  there  was  that  inner  consciousness  called 
Conscience.  This  is  what  made  him  true.  His  con 
science  was  king,  but  more  than  this. 

There  was  an  indefinable  something  about  it 
which  no  man  can  measure.  A  sensitiveness  of  soul, 
which  made  him  keenly  alive  to  vibrations,  if  I 
might  use  the  term,  from  the  Unseen  World. 

The  sad  death  of  his  boy,  Willie,  in  1862,  brought 
him  in  closer  touch  with  this  influence. 

Walt  Whitman  said: 

"The  foundations  of  his  character,  more  than  any 
man's  in  history,  were  mystic  and  spiritual. 

His  manner  was  so  simple  that  it  would  invite 
familiarity,  yet  something  indefinable  kept  people  at 
a  distance,  as  in  the  presence  of  a  Master. 


1LJE  was,"  says  the  Spectator,  "above  all  things  a 
gentleman.     This  he  showed  in  the  kindness 
exhibited  toward  his  generals,  when  he  either  praised 
them  or  had  some  cause  to  blame  them." 

He  never  doubted  himself  or  his  mission.     His 
serenity  showed  this. 

81 


No  man  can  be  serene  who  doubts  himself.  He 
had  pride ;  pride  for  the  whole  nation,  but  no  vanity. 

It  was  Napoleon's  vanity  that  was  his  undoing. 
Lincoln,  like  Washington,  was  entirely  devoid  of 
this  vanity. 

During  the  whole  period  that  Chase  was  Secre- 
tayr  of  the  Treasury,  he  was  conspiring  for  the 
Presidency.  Lincoln  knew  this,  but  he  was  unper 
turbed  by  it. 

"I  am  entirely  indifferent  to  his  success  or  failure 
in  these  schemes,"  he  said,  "so  long  as  he  does  his 
duty  at  the  head  of  the  Treasury  Department." 

In  connection  with  this,  he  related  one  of  his 
"home-spun"  stories  to  Henry  J.  Raymond,  the  edi 
tor. 

"Raymond,"  he  said,  "you  were  brought  up  on  a 
farm,  and  you  know  what  a  'chin-fly'  is.  My  brother 
and  I  were  once  plowing  corn  on  a  Kentucky  farm, 
I  driving  the  horse  and  he  holding  the  plow.  The 
horse  was  lazy,  but  upon  one  occasion  rushed  across 
the  field  so  that  I,  with  my  long  legs,  could  scarcely 
keep  pace  with  him.  On  reaching  the  end  of  the 
furrow,  I  found  an  enormous  chin-fly  fastened  upon 
him,  and  I  knocked  it  off.  My  brother  asked  me 
what  I  did  that  for.  I  told  him  I  didn't  want  the 
old  horse  bitten  that  way.  'Why,'  said  my  brother, 
'that  was  the  only  thing  that  made  him  go.' 

"Now  if  Mr.  Chase  has  a  presidential  'chin-fly' 
biting  him,  I'm  not  going  to  knock  it  off,  if  it  will 
only  make  his  department  go." 

Only  a  true  Master  of  Men  and  Master  of  Self 
and  only  one  who  looked  upon  the  Drama  of  Life, 
realizing  that  he  was  to  play  that  part  in  the  Drama, 
which  had  already  been  assigned  to  him  by  its  Au 
thor,  could  be  so  calmly  indifferent  to  the  influences 
that  were  working  to  undermine  his  authority. 

82 


In  his  magnanimity,  he  afterward  appointed 
Chase  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court. 

All  these  qualities  which  came  to  him  through 
the  Unseen  Power  which  ever  guided  and  upheld 
him,  were  depicted  upon  that  sad  countenance.  He 
had  a  most  irresistible  smile,  and  his  voice,  though 
trained  away  from  a  natural  melodiousness  by  out- 
of-door  speaking,  was,  nevertheless,  full  of  feeling. 

A  S  time  passed,  Lincoln  became  convinced  that 
it  was  the  purpose  of  the  Almighty  to  cause 
the  North  and  the  South  to  suffer  alike  for  slavery. 
This  was  evinced  in  that  second  Inaugural  Address, 
wherein  he  shows  the  MAJESTY  OF  HIS 
TRUST  IN  A  JUST  GOD. 


E  said:  "Both  (North  and  South)  read  the 
same  Bible  and  pray  to  the  same  God,  and 
each  invokes  his  aid  against  the  other. 

"It  may  seem  strange  that  any  men  should  dare 
to  ask  a  just  God's  assistance  in  wringing  their 
bread  from  the  sweat  of  other  mens  faces,  but  let 
us  f  judge  notj  that  we  be  not  judged' 

"The  prayers  of  both  could  not  be  answered; 
that  of  neither  has  been  answered  fully. 

"The  Almighty  has  his  own  plans  and  purposes. 

"Woe  unto  the  world  because  of  offenses,  for  it 
must  needs  be  that  offenses  come.  But  woe  unto 
that  man  by  whom  the  offense  cometh. 

"If  we  shall  suppose  that  American  slavery  is  one 
of  those  offenses,  which  in  the  Providence  of  God 
must  needs  come,  but  which  having  continued 
through  His  appointed  time,  He  now  wills  to  re 
move,  and  that  He  gives  to  both  North  and  South 
this  terrible  war,  as  the  woe  due  to  those  by  whom 

83 


the  offense  came,  shall  we  discover  therein  any  de 
parture  from  those  Divine  attributes,  which  the  be 
lievers  in  a  living  God  always  ascribe  to  him? 

"Fondly  do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that 
this  mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass  away. 

"Yet,  if  God  wills  that  it  continue  until  all  the 
wealth  piled  by  the  bondsman  s  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until 
every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be 
paid  by  another  drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said 
three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said, 
'The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous 
altogether.' 

"With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all, 
with  firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see 
the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are 
in — to  bind  up  the  Nations'  wounds,  to  care  for 
him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his 
widow  and  his  orphan. 

"To  do  all  which  may  achieve  a  just  and  lasting 
peace  among  ourselves  and  all  nations." 

Mr.  F.  B.  Carpenter,  the  artist  who  painted 
Lincoln  and  his  Cabinet  about  to  sign  the  Emanci 
pation  Proclamation,  says: 

"A  few  days  before  the  re-inauguration  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  in  1865,  this  picture  was  temporarily  placed 
in  the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol. 

"As  the  painting  reached  its  position,  a  wander 
ing  sunbeam  crept  in  from  the  top  of  the  Great 
Dome,  and  settled  full  upon  the  head  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln,  leaving  all  the  rest  of  the  picture  in  the 
shadow. 

"The  effect  was  singular  and  wonderful.  'Look!' 

exclaimed  R ,  a  policeman  of  the  Capitol  Squad, 

'that  is  as  it  should  be.  God  bless  him!  May  the 
sun  shine  upon  his  head  forever!'  >! 

84 


CHORTLY  after  this,  the  President  decided  to 
take  a  holiday,  and  took  steamer  for  Grant's 
headquarters,  at  City  Point,  at  the  junction  of  the 
James  and  Appomatox  Rivers. 

Here  Sherman  came  from  Goldsboro,  North 
Carolina,  which  place  he  had  reached  in  his  March 
to  the  Sea,  from  Atlanta,  Georgia,  to  consult  with 
the  President  and  General  Grant. 

Both  Generals  thought  the  war  about  over,  but 
agreed  that  there  must  be  one  more  big  battle.  This 
Lincoln  implored  them  to  avoid,  if  possible.  "No 
more  bloodshed,"  he  begged. 

Richmond  was  now  abandoned,  and  he  went  to 
view  the  remains.  He  started  alone  and  unpro 
tected,  except  for  one  or  two  friends,  but  Admiral 
Porter  was  in  the  Bay,  and  hearing  of  it,  sent  a 
body-guard  to  escort  him. 

He  stepped  into  the  house  that  had  been  Jeffer 
son  Davis'  headquarters. 

One  day,  going  to  Libby  Prison,  someone  said, 
"Jefferson  Davis  ought  to  be  shot." 

"Judge  not,  that  ye  be  not  judged/'  Charles  Sum- 
ner  heard  him  say. 

On  April  ninth,  Lee  surrendered  to  Grant  at 
Appomatox,  and  the  war  was  practically  over. 

The  problem  of  reconstruction  was  now  before 
the  President.  This  was  the  object  of  his  anxious 
solicitude.  He  offered  pardon  to  all  who  would 
come  back  into  the  Government. 

This  was  resented  by  the  Legislature.  They  said 
he  had  not  consulted  them — that  Rebels  should  be 
punished,  not  pardoned. 

But  Lincoln  considered  this  "bad  as  the  basis  of 
controversy.  Good  for  nothing  at  all.  Merely  a 
pernicious  abstraction."  "Finding  themselves  safely 
at  home,"  he  said,  "it  would  be  utterly  immaterial 
whether  they  had  ever  been  abroad  or  not."  He 

85 


plainly  told  his  Cabinet  that  he  would  never  be  a 
party  to  any  act  of  resentment.  There  had  been 
enough  bloodshed. 


Friday  morning  come.     It  was  on  April 
fourteenth. 

An  order  was  sent  out  to  stop  the  purchase  of 
military  supplies  and  to  suspend  the  draft. 

Early  that  morning,  Ward  Lamon,  the  United 
States  Marshal  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  might 
be  seen  wending  his  way  to  the  White  House. 

He  had  in  his  hand  a  request  for  the  pardon  of 
an  old  soldier  who  had  been  convicted  of  breaking 
an  army  regulation. 

Upon  gaining  audience  with  the  President,  Mr. 
Lincoln  turned  to  him  and  said,  "Lamon,  do  you* 
know  how  the  Patagonians  eat  oysters?" 

"No,  I  do  not,  Mr.  Lincoln." 

"Well,  it  is  their  habit  to  open  them  as  fast  as 
they  can  and  throw  the  shells  out  of  the  window. 
When  the  pile  of  shells  grows  higher  than  the  house, 
they  pick  up  stakes  and  move  on.  Now,  Lamon,  I 
feel  like  beginning  a  new  pile  of  pardons,  and  I 
guess  this  is  a  good  one  to  begin  on."  This  is  the 
last  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  anecdotes  that  has  been  re 
corded. 

Secretary  Stanton  said  he  had  never  seen  Mr. 
Lincoln  so  happy  and  cheerful  as  on  this  day,  and 
that  he  showed  in  a  marked  degree  his  humanity 
and  tender,  forgiving  disposition.  The  indescribable 
sadness  which  was  habitual,  now  gave  way  to  a 
serenity  that  was  very  marked. 

His  form  straightened  and  his  eye  grew  bright. 
His  Life  Purpose  was  accomplished.  The  Stars  and 
Stripes  which  just  four  years  before  had  been  torn 
from  Fort  Sumter,  were  today  floating  again  in  the 


breeze.     How  thankful  we  are  that  the  Man  at  the 
Helm  lived  to  see  that  day! 


TT  was  a  Millennium  Day. 

The  cry  of  the  mourners  was  turning  to  gladness, 
for  their  dead  had  helped  to  save  the  Union. 

The  family  at  the  White  House  was  happy.  Cap 
tain  Robert  Lincoln,  then  an  aide  on  Grant's  staff, 
was  at  home  for  the  day.  At  the  breakfast  table, 
the  President  had  Robert  E.  Lee's  picture  before 
him,  and  he  said  to  his  son :  "It  is  a  good  face.  It 
is  the  face  of  a  noble,  brave  man.  The  war  is  now 
closed,  and  we  will  soon  live  in  peace  with  the  brave 
men  who  have  been  fighting  against  us" 

It  was  a  beautiful  day  in  Washington.  The  dog 
wood  was  in  blossom  and  the  willows  were  turning 
green. 

In  the  afternoon,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lincoln  went  for 
a  drive. 

"Mary,"  he  said,  "we  have  had  a  hard  time  since 
we  came  to  Washington,  but  the  war  is  over,  and 
with  God's  blessing,  we  may  hope  for  four  years  of 
peace  and  happiness,  and  then  we  will  go  back  to 
Illinois  and  pass  the  rest  of  our  lives  in  quiet.  We 
have  saved  up  some  money  and  during  the  next  four 
years  we  will  try  and  save  a  little  more,  and  when 
we  go  back  I'll  open  an  office  in  Chicago  or  Spring 
field,  and  at  least  do  enough  to  give  us  a  livelihood." 
A  true  Nature's  Gentleman! 


A    FEW    nights    before    this    Easter    Day,    the 
President  dreamed  that  he  was  awakened  by 
people  weeping  all  around  him;  and  he  arose  and 
passed  into  another  room,  where  he  saw  on  a  cata 
falque  a  casket  draped  in  mourning.    They  told  him 

87 


the  President  had  been  assassinated,  and  was  lying 
there.  ;  ^m 

And,  alas!  this  dream  came  true. 

The  morning  after  this  "Easter  Day"  the  sun 
rose  upon  a  mourning  nation.  This  Nature's  Gen 
tleman,  this  "Shepherd  of  the  People,"  had  passed 
out,  and  "he  was  not,  for  God  took  him." 

Stanton  said,  as,  with  streaming  eyes,  he  closed 
the  eyelids  of  his  Chief: 

"Now  he  belongs  to  the  ages." 

And  "Tad,"  the  young  lad  who  loved  his  father 
so  dearly,  said,  between  his  sobs,  "Do  you  think  my 
father  is  happy?" 

"Yes,  very  happy,"  was  the  reply. 

"Then  I  am  glad  my  father  has  gone  to  Heaven, 
for  he  never  was  happy  in  this  house.  This  was  not 
a  good  place  for  him." 

The  cry  of  Walt  Whitman, 

"Oh,  Captain!    My  Captain! 

Our  fearful  trip  is  done, 
The  ship  has  weathered  every  rack. 

The  prize  we  sought  is  won. 
The  port  is  near,  the  bells  I  hear, 

The  people  all  exulting, 
While  follow  eyes  the  steady  keel, 

The  vessel  grim  and  daring. 

But  Oh,  heart,  heart,  heart! 

Oh,  the  bleeding  drops  of  red 
Where  on  the  deck  my  Captain  lies 

Fallen  cold  and  dead. 

Oh,   Captain!    My   Captain! 

Rise  up  and  hear  the  bells; 
Rise  up !  For  you  the  flag  is  flung 

For  you  the  bugle  trills. 


88 


For  youj  bouquets  and  ribboned  wreaths 

For  you,  the  shores  a-crowding 
For  you,  they  call,  the  swaying  mass 

Their  eager  faces  turning. 

Here  Captain!    Dear  father — 

This  arm  beneath  your  head. 
It  is  some  dream  that  on  the  deck 

YouVe  fallen — cold  and  dead. 

My  Captain  does  not  answer, 

His  lips  are  pale  and  still. 
My  father  does  not  feel  my  arm. 

He  has  no  pulse  nor  will. 

The  Ship  is  anchored  safe  and  sound 

The  voyage  closed  and  done 
From  fearful  trip,  the  Victor  Ship 

Comes  in  with  object  won. 

Exult,  O  shores,  and  ring,  O  bells! 

But  I  with  mournful  tread 
Walk  the  deck  my  Captain  lies 

Fallen  cold  and  dead. 

This  was  the  cry  of  a  grateful,  but  sad  and  mourn 
ful  nation. 


Edward  Eggleston  relates  how  Mr.  Lincoln 
when  he  went  to  New  York  in  1860,  and  made  his 
celebrated  Cooper  Union  Address,  remained  over 
Sunday  and  visited  the  Five  Points  Sunday  School. 
He  was  urged  to  speak  to  the  children,  and  finally 
did  so. 

In  telling  this  to  a  friend  upon  his  return  home, 
he  said:  "I  tell  you,  Jim,  I  didn't  know  what  to 
say,  but  I  had  heard  they  were  homeless  and  friend 
less  and  I  thought  of  the  time  when  I  had  been 
pinched  by  terrible  poverty. 

And  so  I  told  them  that  I  had  been  poor;  that  I 
remembered  when  my  toes  stuck  out  through  my 
broken  shoes  in  winter.  When  my  arms  were  out 
at  the  elbows ;  when  I  shivered  with  the  cold. 

And  I  told  them  there  was  only  one  rule:  that 
was,  always  to  do  the  very  best  you  can.  I  told 
them  that  I  had  always  tried  to  do  the  very  best 
I  could,  and  that  if  they  would  follow  that  rule, 
they  would  get  along  somehow. 

That  was  about  all  I  said.  And  when  I  got 
through,  Mr.  Pease,  the  superintendent,  said  it  was 
just  what  they  needed,  and  all  the  teachers  came 
and  shook  hands  with  me  and  thanked  me." 

Here  Mr.  Lincoln  put  his  hand  in  his  pocket, 
and  drew  forth  a  little  book,  saying,  that  he  never 
heard  anything  that  touched  him  as  the  songs  those 
children  sang. 

Then  he  began  reading  one  of  them  with  all  the 
earnestness  of  his  great  earnest  soul.  Jim  soon  felt 
his  throat  harden  and  the  great  tears  began  falling 
fast. 

Turning  to  Mr.  Lincoln  he  saw  that  his  eyes 
were  so  bedimmed  that  he  could  not  see  the  page, 
and  was  repeating  the  song  from  memory. 

91 


did  the  man  who  was  about  to  step  into 
*•  the  highest  place  in  the  nation  meet  on  their 
own  ground,  in  the  simplicity  of  his  manliness,  those 
who  were  now  situated  as  he  once  had  been — for  he 
knew  that  the  Lord  was  the  Maker  of  them  all — 
and  that  there  was  no  pride  among  souls — for  "souls 
are  all  made  of  the  same  stuff." 


AN  I  add  one  word  that  would  impress  more 
deeply  the  wonderful  lessons,  lessons  in  hon 
esty,  in  kindness,  in  simplicity,  in  true  nobility,  and 
in  patriotism — that  patriotism  that  wins  for  country 
and  the  glory  of  God — can  I  add  one  word  to  these 
lessons  gleaned  from  the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
the 

SAVIOUR  OF  HIS  COUNTRY? 
I  cannot. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


•                •-       '.                1     .               : 

„  «  1  1  L  -  TI  •-••»  "»"  "  vii 

.         I..JJ 

AA  rt  r<     rt  '/    Hrti*-^ 

MAR  2  «  1963 

General  Library 


YA 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


CDEioasiot, 


